December 29, 2008 9:28AM 

# Don’t Let the Left Nationalize Health Insurance 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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With left-wing Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, and many special-interest groups clamoring for reform, people are starting to talk about comprehensive health care reform as if it were a done deal.

Yet comprehensive reform could easily crater — and it should crater if it includes any of the following:

1. Government-run health care for the middle class
2. Mandates
3. Price controls

Those reforms would effectively [nationalize health insurance](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9679), regardless of whether we continue to call it “private” insurance.

Republicans, moderate Democrats, and independents should kill any reforms that include any of those three items. Here’s [why, and how](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/28/avoiding-health-care-chaos/).

##### Related Tags 

[Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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