OBAMACARE > ROMNEYCARE > HEALTH CARE > HEALTH

The John Roberts Supreme Court today upheld the Affordable Health Care Act – and by conservative estimate, this is the most important supreme court ruling since that day in 1973 the Burger Court discovered the right to privacy for women and took away the right to life for unborn babies.   It really may be the biggest ruling since that day the Taney Court ruled that Dred Scott was not a person.    In today’s ruling, the Act is declared constitutional.  However, the 5 justices justified it as taxation, not commerce.  
Taxation always brings out the hypocrisy in both America’s citizens and America’s Congress.   Everyone has a favorite federal program; everyone has a favorite entitlement.  Everyone wants that program and entitlement funded to the max —  but with someone else’s tax money.     
Just a few days ago in Utah, Senator Orrin Hatch won a primary election by exploiting that very cultural hypocrisy.   He won the election by, in essence, flattering Utah voters into believing he will use his massive seniority in the Senate Finance Committee and his basic fiscal conservative principles to slash federal spending and federal taxation – while preserving federal programs  important to Utah’s jobs.   This not only illustrates taxation hypocrisy, it may be this week’s best working definition of “federal pork” :    Excessive federal spending in someone else’s state. 


MEANWHILE ON CONSTITUTION AVENUE
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate presumptive, decried the Supreme Court decision and promised to repeal it.   It is a tall order; we will see if he is up to the task.
First, the Electoral College has to elect him.  
Next, the American voters need to elect Republican majorities to the Senate and the House.    And the voters can be fickle creatures.  Do more of them want Affordable Health Care?  Or the status quo where only people with money can get access to health.  
We should hope that Romney does not exploit divisive tactics simply to appeal to the bitter devils of  his countrymen’s natures as the negative method to win election.    Anti-Obamacare – like anti-Communism of the 1960s – mixes fear, jealousy, and intense emotional displays and rhetoric all for a theatrical quasi-patriotic effect.   
Romney, however, really needs a positive plan to replace Obamacare.  He cannot just take a negative stance.   He’d be the one to develop a plan:   as an executive he made plans;  as governor of Massachusetts, he created his own state insurance mandate.  


IN FOCUS
Some people like to say that The American Health Care System is rather like a glass half full of possibilities for those with the funding.   Other people like to say The American Health Care System is rather like a glass half empty for those without status or money.   I think The American Health Care System has the wrong glass.
A problem in the whole Health Care debate is that people and leaders generally across the nation ignore  “Health.”    Health always seems to get lost amid the bickering and posturing over Insurance and Taxation.     
What is health?   How do we get it?   How do we maintain it?   How do we preserve it in old age?   What things in American culture and American cuisine make us unhealthy?   What can the governments do to promote health instead of just funding care for sickness?

THE CALL TO ACTION:

Romney could lead a national discussion on American health and make proposals as to how governments can encourage a healthy American life.  This will not be easy.   Americans, as a generalization, want to live as heathens but still stay healthy.   If that does not happen, what with causes and effects, they want complete funding to repair their damages to their health.   Neither expectations are reasonable in a 21st Century of tight budgets and scarce resources.  We should promote health fire, health care systems next.