If ever there were a reason to be skeptical of government-sponsored programs ostensibly designed to help people, this is one. Although it was started with the best intentions by mental health advocate Dorothy Dix, the government-run hospital became more of a death camp than a treatment facility.

The Insane Asylum, like many other mental facilities across the United States at the time, have dark and deadly histories, many of which have rightfully inspired horror films.

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky killed so many people that estimates are anywhere from 150 a year to over 60,000.

The abuse of one such place continued into modern history and was uncovered by Geraldo Rivera. Willowbrook State School on Staten Island gained national attention after Robert Kennedy toured it in the 60’s. But Rivera’s Peabody Award-winning investigation revealed torture, patients covered in feces, sexual assault by staff and images so horrifying that Willowbrook became the inspiration for the TV series “American Horror Story Asylum.”

As the argument over state-run health care heats up, Americans will do well to remember their past. Universal healthcare sounds like a wonderful idea on the surface but when conditions become overcrowded and money stops flowing, we end up with a very real American Horror Story.