 According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 37% of American adults have a positive view of socialism, including 57% of Democrat-leaning voters and 16% of Republican-leaning voters.When the term "socialized medicine" first appeared in the United States in the early 20th century, it bore no negative connotations.Otto P. Geier, chairman of the Preventive Medicine Section of the American Medical Association, was quoted in "The New York Times" in 1917 as praising socialized medicine as a way to "discover disease in its incipiency," help end "venereal diseases, alcoholism, tuberculosis," and "make a fundamental contribution to social welfare."