My neighbor who ingests right wing talk radio just told me that she has been asking her doctors ( she has health problems) how they feel about “socialized medicine”.

She says she is getting herself ready for it, bracing herself. I said- “Medicare, which surely you are on, is socialized medicine. The VA is socialized medicine”.

Silence.

I said “you don’t have to worry- the most that will happen will be that everyone is required to have medical insurance or some kind coverage, like Massachusetts”. I said “we are trying to provide for everyone so that they don’t have to go to the emergency room when they are sick”. She offered that hospitals cannot turn people away. She also offered “the problem is illegal immigrants who come here to have their children”.

That was only part of the conversation.

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I also don’t think we should be trying to get back to the consumer spending levels we had.