A Promise to “Redefine the Nation”

The late Ted Kennedy said one day that the person who reforms the American health care system “would redefine the nation.” By making health insurance the priority at the beginning of his presidency, Barack Obama launched much more than the umpteenth political battle in Congress. The new president is testing his own capacity to fulfill the most important promise of his campaign, the promise of a new America: one that is less individualistic, more collective, and ready to reinvent itself.

Numerous people before Obama have ruined themselves over the issue of universal care, notably Hillary Clinton. She was never able to fulfill the mission conferred upon her by her husband, even though she was first lady at the time. The hysterical nature of the debates show the difficulty of convincing the portion of Americans for whom the simple term “public health” is synonymous with an attack on liberties and an unbearable dictum made by the federal government. The extreme right profited from these feelings and the cries of “Obama the Nazi” or “Obama the communist.” The reality is that the current U.S. health care system is an aberration with exorbitant costs, leaving 48 million people without insurance. In August, while evoking the reform that he has already been forced to tone down, Obama spoke of a “moral obligation.” He will need all of his oratory talents to convince Congress and America that health care reform is necessary. If he loses this fight, it will be his own dream that is being destroyed.