Earlier this week I was a guest on The Rick Amato Show on One America News Network. In this roundtable segment, I discuss topics such as Obamacare’s failed exchanges, whether the idea behind the law was a good one, and whether Obamacare is socialism.

I say in the segment that Obamacare is not a socialist law but a fascist one. I did not have the chance to expand on why this is the case, but I’ve written about this previously, so if you’re interested, check out my argument in full, here.

Obviously, there are big differences between what’s going on under Obamacare and what we commonly think of as fascism (e.g., Germany under Nazi rule). But those differences don’t mean that fascism is an inaccurate characterization of Obamacare (and other laws like it). At its root, fascism is a social system in which property is nominally privately owned but property rights can be overridden by government dictate. According to one encyclopedia:

Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission.

This description is not far from the state of American health care today. For an account of how controlled private health insurance companies, in particular, were before Obamacare,
see my paper on the subject.

Image: The Rick Amato Show via One America News Network