Objective: The opponents of the socialization of healthcare hypothesize that socialization of health care could lead to decrease quality of care. The aim of our study was to compare the quality of care delivered to a privately insured population compared to those covered by government subsidized Medicaid plan in the same region. Methods: Administrative claims data from July 2004 through June 2005 were used from a private health plan and the Medicaid plan within the same state in the Southeastern US. Two quality indicators from the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) were adapted and used to compare compliance rates between the privately insured and Medicaid populations (Table 1). Based on the specifications of each indicator, children who met relevant criteria were identified as the denominator. Of those, children that received the indicated intervention were identified as the numerator. Population-level rates were calculated for each quality indicator for both plans. Results: Children in the private health plan received the indicated quality care much more frequently than the Medicaid population, with nearly 3-fold differences in compliance rates. Varicella zoster virus (VZV) vaccines and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines were included in the analysis for 2 year old children. The private plan had a denominator of 4222 children and the Medicaid plan had 15,653 children for both measures. Eighty-two percent of private plan children received a VZV vaccine compared to 29% of Medicaid children. Eighty-four percent of private plan children received an MMR vaccine compared to 29% of Medicaid children. Conclusion: Children covered by Medicaid plans are significantly less likely to receive quality health care than compared to those who have private insurance coverage. Further studies are needed to investigate to what degree this wide disparity is driven by socioeconomic factors and the socialization of health care.