A new taboo is now in place. It can be invoked easily, effectively, and immediately by a mantra that is extremely powerful because it has that singular quality that appeals to the human ear: resonance. The mantra is Obamacare.
Experience now indicates that the moment it is uttered it effectively closes down the First Amendment. There is no discussion at all from that point on. It is a leading characteristic of what we regard as underdeveloped counries that free discussion is discouraged, and this device may well be due to a belief that the objectives of discussion will not be attainable.
The U.S. is by far the wealthiest nation in this world. If any country should be able to implement universal health care successfully, it is the United States. Yet the fact is that universal health care, in its various forms, is implemented in all the developed nations in the world now except one, the U.S.
Furthermore, the health care costs in the U.S. exceed the average of all other countries by a factor of two. The single and indisputable criterion of quality of life is longevity. No living species survives for long under a life of sustained stress, and when we can alleviate that stress, then longevity is greater.
The evidence indicates all the countries with a comprehensive and truly affordable health care system--available to all--are above the U.S. in the longevity rankings.
We should be engaged in discussions as to why countries with nothing like the wealth of the U.S. can provide affordable and available-to-all health care systems with better outcomes of longevity and infant mortality, but we do nothing except wring our hands and say we cannot afford it, as if the U.S. were in the category of an underdeveloped country.
To be able to enter into these discussions by lifting the taboo placed on the First Amendment by the mantra Obamacare is where the U.S. should now be. The sort of privation and frugality that the seventeenth century English Puritans would have enjoyed should not be perpetuated in today's world. It would be far better to invoke the spirit of Jefferson's "pursuit of happiness" by seeing to it that, throughout one's life, the quality of that life never falls below an agreed level.
The lead member of Seal Team Six is currently reported to be without any medical insurance whatsoever. This would not happen elsewhere. For what he did, the man should be covered, no question.
No more taboos. Open discussion must be the order of the day. It is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States, and so be it.
LAMBENT LITERACY: Words are, in my humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it. Albus Dumbledore (J.K. Rowling)
