Compared with countries that really do have socialist medicine (Canada, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand), not just a hybrid compromise[1] like what is being proposed for the United States, we rank last in all but one parameter of a fair, functional system: access, patient safety, efficiency and equity despite paying the most per capita. [chart]. The one part of US health care that is socialized, Medicare, gets high marks from the elderly it covers. Fifty-six percent of enrollees give Medicare 9 or 10 ratings on a ten scale. And a clear majority support extending Medicare to Americans age fifty-five and older according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But the realities do not stop the right wing propaganda machine from resurrecting the lies of yesteryear. The same arguments used by Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Bob Dole and Barry Goldwater to try and stop the enactment of Medicare are being re-broadcast today. Someone should tell them to stop playing the same scratched record.[1] The Senate HELP Committee bill has the fingerprints of Senator Ted Kennedy all over it, more than enough reason for some conservative Democrats and Republicans to oppose the measure. The Affordable Health Care Act contains the bedrock of Kennedy's forty year advocacy: a mandate for all Americans to be covered, a requirement for employers to subsidize it, grants for those too poor to buy it, and the creation of a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers. Requiring all Americans to have health care insurance coverage without a public option or similar public subsidy as proposed by the Senate Finance Committee may violate the constitutional principle of equal protection under law. It is not clear if Senator Kennedy will be able to resume active public service, but the cause of his lifetime is within reach of becoming law.