Universal Health Care: Socialism?

We are under the assumption that private insurance companies are established for the in order to provide quality health care for patients, but I have come to the conclusion that insurance has transformed into pre-paid health care. In order to receive health care a person must be covered by either a private insurance company or by Medicare or Medicaid. Employees who believe that there companies "cover" their insurance costs are sadly mistaken. Businesses deduct money from employees' pay checks in order to pay for their insurance. People argue that the United States does not need a system in where the government has total control over health care. They believe that eventually this single payer health care system will lead to socialism. Socialism is a system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution in the community as a whole. People fear that as a result of universal health care the government will socialize every type of privately owned corporations, including banks, small businesses, etc. Socialism brings with it a negative connotation due to the fact that socialism is widely viewed down upon in American political culture. Socialized medicine refers to the idea that the government will be the only organization responsible for the distribution of health care. The debate of whether or not universal health care would lead to socialism is one that has brought controversy among many political advocates. Personally, I believe that universal health care will not lead to socialism, especially in the United States. Due to the complexity found within our government, socialism is most likely never going to have an effect within our lives.