"Socialized Medicine"

Hey everyone, I thought this would be a great article to share:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/opinion/03kristof.html?_r=1&em

Here's a small excerpt:

"Until the mid-19th century, firefighting was left mostly to a mishmash of volunteer crews and private fire insurance companies. In New York City, according to accounts in The New York Times in the 1850s and 1860s, firefighting often descended into chaos, with drunkenness and looting. So almost every country moved to what today’s health insurance lobbyists might label “socialized firefighting.” In effect, we have a single-payer system of public fire departments.

Throughout the industrialized world, there are a handful of these areas where governments fill needs better than free markets: fire protection, police work, education, postal service, libraries, health care. The United States goes along with this international trend in every area but one: health care."

The article also discussed how the government run health care systems (VA, Medicare) are what people actually like, has better performance and is cost-efficient. I just find it intriguing that other systems in America--like fire-fighting--are okay to be set up with a single-payer system but health care is constantly faced with extreme opposition and fear of reform. Granted, health care is a different area, even creating/proposing small incremental changes exerts a lot of effort and time. Maybe, like this article points out, when put into the context of looking at the spectrum of activities/positions in the US that are so-called "socialized" people can begin to understand the positive implications the single payer system or public option could potentially have. What do you think?