There is a palpable malaise in American medicine as clinical practice veers off its moorings, swept along by a new commercialism that is displacing medical professionalism and its attendant moral obligations. Although the sociology of this phenomenon is complex and multifactorial, I argue that this move toward medical commercialism was accelerated by the abortive efforts of the Clinton Administration's Health Security Act. Through an analysis of performative speech I show that, although the Clinton plan drew on many strands of speech about healthcare, it favored the discourse of health policy and health economics over that of clinical practice and professionalism. Though the Clinton plan failed, this new vocabulary of health economics has led us to imagine a new descriptive framework, which has commodified healthcare and commercialized the clinic.I am grateful to Drs. William Andereck and Al Jonsen and the California Pacific Medical Center's Program in Medicine and Human Values for the invitation to participate in their deliberations on “Commercialism in Medicine,” my fellow colloquialists for their helpful comments, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez del Pozo for his insights, and Dr. Jonsen, in particular, for his astute editorial advice and guidance.