Health insurance and the paradox of care
鈥楥are鈥� began as an emotion but now is an activity accounting for nearly a fifth of the United States economy.
鈥楥are鈥� began as an emotion but now is an activity accounting for nearly a fifth of the United States economy.
By the time you see this, dear reader, the United States may have an entirely new health-insurance system, one that will gather up both those proverbially lying in the middle of the street and those driving by in their Cadillac plans, and a great chorus of the people will say 鈥渁men.鈥澛�
Or maybe not.
Meanwhile, I鈥檝e been pondering the evolution of the hardworking English word care. It started out referring to an emotion, a sense of mental burden, but has evolved into an activity 鈥� one whose share of the world鈥檚 largest economy, according to 2015 data, reached 17.8 percent.聽
Care, as a verb, comes from the Old English carian or cearian, meaning to 鈥渂e anxious, grieve; to feel concern or interest,鈥� according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. The word was rooted in a Proto-Germanic term meaning 鈥渢o lament.鈥澛�
Care as a noun is similarly ancient. But by around 1400, its meaning had evolved to include 鈥渃harge, oversight, protection,鈥� to cite the Online Etymology Dictionary again. The postal 鈥渋n care of鈥� 鈥� remember that one? 鈥� stems from this sense, and goes way back, too.
鈥淭o take care of,鈥� in the sense of 鈥渢o do鈥� or 鈥渢o take in hand,鈥� goes back to the 1580s. This suggests that a verb usage such as, 鈥淧ick up the doughnuts for the meeting in the morning? I can take care of that,鈥� would have been familiar to Elizabethans, even if the doughnuts were not. (Scones, maybe?)聽
The astute observer will note the difference between 鈥渢aking care of鈥� getting the doughnuts and 鈥渢aking care of,鈥� for example, a 颅special-needs child.聽
But the Oxford English Dictionary combines both in its usage examples for 鈥渢ake care of.鈥� Thus we have the biblical good Samaritan who brought the man who had fallen among thieves en route from Jerusalem to Jericho 鈥渋nto an Inn, and took care of him.鈥� And in the same usage list, a reference from 1932: 鈥淢oney ... which would enable him to take care of all arrears on the property.鈥�
Not quite the same, are they?
The Online Etymology Dictionary traces caregiver back to 1974, noting, 鈥淚t has, in many senses, the same meaning as care-taker, which ought to be its antonym.鈥�
But language isn鈥檛 always logical. And so 鈥渃aretaker鈥� is likely to refer to a government somewhere in northern Europe, or to someone who lives in a little cottage on a grand estate somewhere. Caregiver, meanwhile, is defined straightforwardly by Merriam-Webster, for instance, as 鈥渁 person who provides direct care (as for children, elderly people, or the chronically ill).鈥澛�
It is reported that the White House does not like the term 鈥淭rumpcare.鈥澛�
鈥淭rump loyalists,鈥� as The Washington Post calls them, seem to prefer 鈥淩yancare鈥� or 鈥淩yanCare,鈥� with the 鈥渃amel-case鈥� interior capitalization.聽
What emerges from the legislative sausage mill may indeed be something called TRyanrumpCare 鈥� designed to cover someone鈥檚 flank, just maybe not yours.