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Every time I hear the term "universal health care" I recognize it as a euphemism for socialized medicine. Prompt access to good health care at no cost is what people think they mean by the term "universal health care," but they always describe this program as a caretaker activity of the government, which is socialized medicine.

The reason most people give to justify "universal health care" is the fact that some people cannot afford treatment for non-emergency medical conditions. (The term "emergency" is defined legally for health care providers, and loosely means life-threatening; the law forgids denial of service in that situation. The definition means that stage 1 cancer is not life-threatening, even though without treatment, it will almost inevitably progress to a terminal state.) This fact is usually stated as a count of the number of people who do not have health insurance. That data is being misinterpreted, and I will explain why. I will concede that there are people who do not have health insurance; I will not concede that every person without health insurance is by definition unable to obtain necessary medical services.

Who does not have health insurance?
Those who have plenty of money to pay their own medical costs and do not want the limitations imposed by insurance
o This group does not have health insurance, but has complete access to medical services whenever they are required
Those who are self-employed and have not chosen to buy health insurance for themselves and their families
o Within this group, some can afford to pay out of pocket for health care, some have purchased health discount plans instead of insurance, and some simply haven't taken the trouble to find out what their options are. Only a subset of this group actually will have any trouble obtaining medical services.
Those who work in jobs that do not have a health insurance benefit, who also either do not believe they can afford the cost of health insurance or who do not know whether they could afford insurance or not, because they haven't checked
o Those who have checked the cost and determined that they can't fit that cost into their budgets are considered to be without access to health care, because they do not have insurance
o Those who haven't checked may assume that they can't afford the cost and may assume that they can't afford the out of pocket cost either. These people would be considered not to have access to health care
Those who are unemployed

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