Insurance does not equal "socialism". 

Except for Medicare which is basically a socialist program, even though it is supposedly a return of what you paid in, but it is treated as your primary insurance.  Medicare plus the tax structuring that made employers offer insurance as compensation are probably the two biggest things that ruined our healthcare system and are responsible for extremely high costs, then add mandated treatment for indigents and not allowing competition across state lines. Government interference is to blame for almost all of this wreck.

I don't want to speak for Levelwing, but I interpreted as what he said being that Obama and the Democrats goal was single payer, not his.  Hillary was supposed to implement single payer, but Trump put a spanner in the works as the Brits say.

That is how I interpreted Levelwing, he was speaking on behalf of the Democrats.  I read it with a bit of sarcasm tone.

"Healthcare" is a multi billion dollar "industry" in the US, and Obamacare put it on steroids, hence why you see so much opposition in congress to repeal it.

It sure is.  I can never understand when a liberal agrees with me enthusiastically when I say, "Big Pharma is screwing us,"  and then suddenly they look clueless when I continue, "... because they are in bed with Big Government."  Why are liberals unable to grasp the fact that when capitalism becomes a problem, it's because the powerful and rich elite in government and business are so often one and the same?

We've had socialized medicine for decades. It's called insurance. The house analogy is not entirely apt, since there are routine medical interventions that could beggar anyone. Childbirth comes quickly to mind. Mrs Steingar was just in the hospital for a few days, the bill is north of $18K.

If people didn't feel entitled to have their childbirth paid for by somebody else, they would be very motivated to find cheaper ways to get the job done.  It is insane that giving birth should cost $18,000.  Absent a medical problem, most births could happen naturally at home. Childbirth is not a disease.  "Medical" insurance shouldn't cover it.  If you can't afford to pay for getting a baby into this world, don't have one, or have one cheaply at home.

There is a whole sordid history of how women were maneuvered into thinking hospitals were a better  place to give birth and it has blown up in to a huge profit making industry with a lot of terrible consequences from way too many unnecessary interventions. The C-section rate is insane, and based mostly on defensive medicine (lawsuits), and usually cascading from a domino effect beginning with a "small" intervention.

I think is was Rush Limbaugh I was listening to the other day, he said right now we do not have health insurance in this country at all.  What we have is an entitlement program to which some of us contribute a little, called "premiums".

Insurance is supposed to cover catastrophic loss.  But we expect all our minor medical expenses to be paid by somebody else, with minimal "copays" and deductibles, and we feel cheated if we don't get back more than we pay in.  That is not insurance.  Insurance is something you pay into and don't WANT to ever get anything back from it, because if you do you've suffered a major disaster. If anything the expectation is getting worse, with the emphasis on paying for "prevention". This makes us feel even more that all the minor stuff should be covered.

I have been paying home insurance premiums for 30 years and I have not made a single claim until this week, when disaster struck and caused major damage.  If home insurance worked like health insurance, I would have been expecting Amica to pay all my regular maintenance and repair bills all these years. NUTS!  They'd go out of business or jack premiums to the stratosphere which is exactly what's happening to health insurance; it is not sustainable.

We already have socialized medicine, it's just not been formally acknowledged. But the left is using this mess to claim the "private market" has failed.  What we have is not private market health insurance.

I'm getting ready to cut off my cable.  There is really nothing on TV worth watching anymore.  I'm going to start watching NetFlix and other internet TV stuff.

I almost never watch TV anymore.  I've got my iPad and Netflix. Unfortunately this shit is seeping into there too.  Documentaries, and any TV show or cable series or movie made recently, much of it is heavily tilted to the left and to today's hot button issues, like feminism and climate change.  If you manage to get through a nature documentary without being preached at about conservation and climate change, don't worry, they'll inevitably bring it up at the very end.

I would be very interested in the veracity and frequency of this claim.  Reminds me of the Cheeto Jesus sourcing his alternative facts as "things he'd heard".

Last year we moved to a town in Texas that is just 3 counties from Mexico.  Yes, it is a big problem. 

I don't know where you are steingar but it seems really hard for people who aren't near the border to grasp that it is a real invasion.  I didn't myself when I lived in North Carolina, although we got illegals ending up there, mostly because it was easy to get a driver's license.  Moving so close to the border has been eye opening.