What Cannot Be Said on Television About Health Care
- Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD
- Author Affiliation: Department of Clinical Bioethics, The Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
- Corresponding Author: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, Department of Clinical Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Bldg 10 Room 1C118, Bethesda, MD 20892-1156 (eemanuel{at}nih.gov).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- COSTS AND COST ANALYSIS
- DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE
- ETHICS, MEDICAL
- HEALTH CARE SYSTEM REFORM
- HOSPITAL MORTALITY
- INFANT MORTALITY
- LANGUAGE
- LIFE EXPECTANCY
- PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
- PUBLIC OPINION
- PUBLIC HEALTH
- QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE
- RESEARCH
- SOCIAL VALUES
- TECHNOLOGY
- TELEVISION
- UNITED STATES
“There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television.”1 said George Carlin. For many years, health care faced the same inhibition; certain words could not be uttered in public about health care. Rationing was one such word. In the 1980s and 1990s, commentators who discussed rationing, such as Callahan and Lamm, were publicly censured for their views.2-3
The words that are used and the words that cannot be used in public reveal a tremendous amount about how people think and act, about what is assumed, and what we aspire to.4 Usual phrases express the conventional wisdom, what the public accepts reflexively, without explanation, justification, or challenge. Conversely, those words that cannot be said on TV reveal what many refuse to accept or believe. Words that should not be uttered in public—but still may be …
