> Socialized medicine is freedom until the government is the only provider of medicine and doesn't want to serve you for some reason, such as a shortage. Medicine is scarce, like food, and we've learned that it's dangerous to have the government be the sole provider of food (see: breadlines and starvation in various Communist nations like Venezuela today).

This is obviously total and utter nonsense. Look at every other western country. Nobody is banning you (or your employer) from buying additional private health insurance. It's simply providing a basic level of service in this arena, just like roads, army, police, fire, health and safety, etc, etc, etc.

Comparing government provided healthcare to Venezuela is a straw man.