<p>Socialism would force you to buy healthcare for everyone else… at this point we are only doing that for the elderly and very poor (and some states aren’t doing much of that). Forcing individuals to buy insurance themselves so they don’t burden the rest of us who do buy insurance to pay for their care isn’t socialism. I would say it smacks of having people take personal responsibility, myself. Otherwise us insured folks end up covering the bulk of the costs for those who think they don’t need insurance, but peskily end up in the hospital due to an accident or illness. We have been covering their costs for years – this is a move away from socialism, not toward it.</p>