Medicare is now apart of Socialism?

Currently in the news, President Obama is trying to get his health care reform bill passed and is having some trouble with that. Under this bill, 36 million uninsured Americans will have extended health coverage by expanding Medicaid, anyone without coverage will have the opportunity to purchase through a federally run program.

With the current health situation, many need any improvement to the United States' health care system, because health care is expensive. For African Americans, improving the health care system is a life-and-death situation since so many African Americans can not afford insurance right now. Currently, the NAACP is supporting the health care bill and has launched the 880 Campaign (that ensures every American has access to quality, affordable health care) that also supports the cause.

Other supporters of President Obama's health care bill are AARP and the American Medical Association, which both agree that the United States needs the passing of this bill. But, even though Obama was announcing his new support from AARP and AMA, there were still plenty of Republicans to put down his new found support. In the crowd there are signs of "No Socialistic Health Care," and "Sweeping Away Socialism One Democrat at a Time." In addition, the same people who had the signs were complaining that "Medicare does not provide sufficient coverage." With that statement, a blogger comments with "I've got news for those protesters: Once we hit 65, we all jump on the "socialized medicine" of Medicare. Without it, our senior citizens would be sick and impoverished.

With all this, I just feel like many Republicans are making a big deal about nothing, and that basically they are saying that they do not want Medicare when they get older. But why wouldn't someone want Medicare?