With health reform at the forefront of the national campaign, some charge that proposals to restructure our health care system represent dangerous steps moving the country towards government-run health care and socialized medicine. Similar rhetoric was heard last fall when President Bush vetoed legislation reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We find this rhetoric inapplicable to both the SCHIP bill and proposals from most presidential candidates. The core issues in health reform involve, not the size of government, but proposals' effect on the number of uninsured, access to quality care, cost growth, and consumers' health care choices.