America was built on capitalism and a free market. When the government decides to blow away a large insurance industry and replace it with single payer, government owned and controlled insurance, we are no longer a free country.
How do you define "free country" and "freedom"? Is a nation truly a free country if 5% of the populace owns almost all of the wealth and the other 95% lives in what is essentially servitude to that other 5%, always fearing job loss, loss home, loss of health insurance, etc.?
Also, is it possible that certain goods and services are just not very compatible with a perfect competition model? For example, if you're having a heart attack, you can't shop around and you can't choose to do without the service. You can't try to "grow it own your own" either. Medical expenses also tend to be opaque and very difficult to predict.
Amazingly, those evil "communist" nations with their socialized medicine seem to be making it work, and their systems are working far far better than ours for a fraction of the cost. That's not fiction. It's fact.
Communism! Fear! It's not communism, it's just a fraction of our societal structure. Having socialism in one fraction does not make the entire nation or society socialist or communist, just like having a socialized police force or military or fire department or public schools does not make the entire nation communist.
In fact, it could be argued that if socilalized medicine is superior to free market and quasi-free market medicine that it provides more actual freedom. Freedom also means not having to worry about medical expenses or the prospect of medical bill-induced bankruptcy.
How did that work out for the soviet union?
Thank goodness that in reality the only options are not all out communism with lunatic dictators or pure laissez-faire capitalism. There all sorts of degrees and mixtures of socialism and capitalism that can be present in an economy.
People trying to compare us to foreign countries just don't get it. We're different, our foundation is different and our freedoms are unique. I don't understand why so many people are so against our great way of life.
...Because our great way of life is not so great. It's great if you're a member of the top 5% or top 20% and not so great if you're a member of the bottom 50%. People in those evil socialist people's states often have a higher quality of life, such as the Scandinavian countries.
What exactly are our unique freedoms, anyway? In our nation we have Big Government in the bedroom regulating abortion and morning after pills. In some states gay people cannot get married. In the past interracial marriage and homosexual relations were illegal in many states. Also, drugs such as marijuana are illegal and we have "consensual crimes" which makes prostitution illegal. In recent times the government has begun spying on people.
What are these "unique freedoms" that people in other first world nations do not have? Keep in mind that other nation's have businesses and a private sector, so obviously that's not amazingly unique.
How have our "unique freedoms" served us? We have a small percentage of people, banksters and business executives, that end up receiving more compensation than their actual contribution to the act of wealth production--at the expense of lower level workers. Is that our unique freedom--that some people can become very rich at the expense of others? That wealth will concentrate in the hands of a small percentage of the populace?