Putrid

 There are two meanings for the word “corrupt.” It can refer to giving or taking bribes. It can also refer to putrid, spoiled meat. You see how they overlap?

In our legal system, though, it requires a specific statute to define something as corrupt, so that leaves it to a capitalist order to decide what really goes too far.

Two weeks ago, for example, a North Carolina cancer patient worried about how she would get health care after losing her job due to the COVID-19 recession. She phoned the office of Senator Thom Tillis for assistance. An aide told her that she couldn’t have health care if she couldn’t afford it. He compared her need for life-saving medical care to a dress shirt that he saw in a store but was too expensive for him! Corrupt? Not according to the law.

This morning CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria worried aloud on NPR that any COVID-19 vaccine would probably be distributed based on who has the money for it rather than where it would do the most good. He referred to a “fiasco” surrounding COVID testing in March and April when testing was available to people with the most money or connections rather than to hospital workers who were actually coming into daily contact with COVID patients they were treating. Corrupt? Not according to the law.

We saw people with summer homes dashing off to them. They left their poorer neighbors confined to their apartments and they brought their infections to areas less prepared to deal with them. Oh, and they proudly posted photos of their quarantine on Instagram. Corrupt? Not according to the law.

Monopolizing health and safety may not yet be illegal in the United States. But it is corrupt in the other sense. It is spoiled behavior, it is putrid behavior, and it stinks to heaven. It is past time to recognize health care as a social necessity. Medicare For All.