Question

During the era of the Cold War, any attempts to induce national health insurance were met with the stigmatizing label of?

1) Communism
2) Socialism
3) Totalitarianism
4) Capitalism

Answer 1

During the Cold War, attempts to introduce national health insurance in the U.S. were labeled as 2) socialism, stigmatized due to the fear of communism and the association with government-controlled systems like those in communist countries.

Step-by-step explanation:

During the era of the Cold War, attempts to create a national health insurance system in the United States were often criticized with the label of 2) socialism.

This was due to the intense ideological struggle between the capitalist West and the communist East.

The American Medical Association and other conservative groups frequently denigrated such proposals as being synonymous with socialized medicine, equating them with the systems of the USSR and other communist countries.

Significant fear of communism during this time led to the stigmatization of government involvement in healthcare.

The most prominent example is when Ronald Reagan, speaking against nationwide health insurance for the elderly, which eventually became Medicare, warned that such socialized medicine was the first step towards the nation's demise as a free society.