September 2009, Issue 5 - American Health Association

Rather than discussing healthcare, perhaps we should be discussing "do you care about health?"

I rather wrap myself in this primal yelling match between Republicans and Democrats in the middle and discuss the moral and ethical issue thus far left out of this raging national debate on healthcare.

The Republicans have been usurped by the radical fringe of the party, those who are obstructionist, who can certainly march and yell, yet lack the basic apparatus of listening. Another words, they lack ears. Those on the left, aren't so primal and have the bully pulpit of the Presidency, but also lack the foresight and wisdom of philosophy, and are splintered by the Progressives who want "Health Options" or nothing at all, and are willing to throw the baby out with the bath water.

When we look at healthcare, we're really looking at reactive healthcare as practiced in this culture. Its nothing short of "Greed-care" for those in the industry to make as much money off the sick and diseased as possible. This is not healthcare. It is greed-care.

Lets go back a few centuries and look at the Declaration of Independence, where we see the first American phrase of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as interpreted by Thomas Jefferson, who himself based the phrase on the English philosopher John Locke.

Then there was the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason in 1776 who wrote "that all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights including pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

Here is where all men of righteous mindful mentality of the day were using abstract code by using the phase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and/or "safety" as code for health. Another words, our forefathers in effect were saying "all men by nature are equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights to the care of their health and safety and are defining health and safety in redefining individual happiness, for without one's health, there can be no happiness.

Thus "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Health" was actually what was meant by our forefathers. If those were in fact, the words used then, we wouldn't be having this argument today. Most societies understood this meaning that health and happiness are one in the same and provide basic health security from cradle to grave for their citizens.

We're the only Western society that doesn't understand the really true meaning of "happiness." No one can tell me that someone with cancer is truly happy. We're talking core values of happiness and health here. There is a moral issue in valuing citizen-care, and every American should be a valued citizen from cradle to grave and Congress should begin looking at the moral issues owed to every American born to a free America: the inherited right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of a healthy and happy American"