Health Care Reform in a Single Sentence

Okay, enough 9/11. Former Senator George McGovern writes in today's WaPo about the simplest and easiest way to solve the heath care reform issue:

For many years, a handful of American political leaders -- including the
late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama -- have been trying to gain
passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President
Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a
presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his
view of the best way forward.

But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that
everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want
comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single
sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.

Those of us over 65 have been enjoying this program for years. I go to
the doctor or hospital of my choice, and my taxes pay all the bills. It's
wonderful. But I would have appreciated it even more if my wife and children and
I had had such health-care coverage when we were younger. I want every American,
from birth to death, to get the kind of health care I now receive. Removing the
payments now going to the insurance corporations would considerably offset the
tax increase necessary to cover all Americans.

We know that Medicare has worked well for half a century for those of us over 65. Why does it become "socialized medicine" when we extend it to younger Americans?