You could ask why this public entity was unable, in the time frame available, unable to make an off-budget quarter-million dollar expenditure and commit to several multiples of additional costs over a several year period, and commit to a incompletely defined contracting process, or you could just make stuff up.
I think it is reasonable to believe that if they were still interested in proceeding with their 2000 application, they could free up enough staff and budget time to write a letter to ICANN saying so. Personally I don't think it's in the public interest to allow private entities to squat on generic terms, but I don't find .health notably more objectionable than .book. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly