Ted Kennedy's Still-Unfinished Work on Health Care
Published August 26, 2009 @ 10:22AM PT
Sen. Ted Kennedy, a fighter and legend in the United States Senate who referred to national health care as "the cause of my life," died last night after battling terminal cancer. While Sen. Kennedy touched all our hearts and fought for a host of progressive issues, the cause that he's most closely associated with is winning the fight to give everyone "decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege." The best way for us to honor his legacy now? By finishing what he started and finally passing universal health care.
A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins imagines our souls crying, “What I do is me, for that I came.” What Ted Kennedy did is change how we looked at health care. There are literally millions of people in this country who would not have coverage were it not for his lifetime of service in the United States Senate. There are millions more whose quality care has significantly improved, if not outright whose lives have been spared, because of the funding and the programs he was able to achieve. The question is what didn’t Ted Kennedy have a hand in when it came to health care?
- There are community-based health clinics, which he helped jump start through an amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1966.
- There’s COBRA in 1985 – legislation that has helped millions of Americans this year keep their coverage even when they lost their job.
- There’s both the American Disabilities Act and the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, two pieces of legislation that would be career-making for another senator on the issue of health care. Kennedy was a driving force for both of them in the same year – 1990.
- There’s HIPAA in 1996, the patient privacy and protection law, which also allows for portable coverage for about 25 million Americans, sponsored by Kennedy.
- There’s SCHIP in 1997, one of many Kennedy collaborations with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, which now covers over 10 million lower-income children.
- The dramatic legislative highlight of last year was Ted Kennedy, already afflicted with the brain cancer that would cut short his life, walking onto the floor of the Senate to be the decisive 60th vote for cloture on a vote to block a draconian cut to physician reimbursement in Medicare.
- And on, and on, and on.
Crying, “What I do is me, for that I came.”
Every time since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid that we have sought to expand health care coverage for our citizens, Ted was on the front lines. He bargained with the Nixon White House and nearly crafted a bipartisan compromise in the early 1970s. He feuded with Carter on health care, and launched his own run for the presidency in part to achieve that goal. When Bill Clinton’s plan was moved in the Senate, Ted was sponsor and lead advocate. And, of course, his still-untimely death comes at a moment when his last great work – one last bill to make good on the promise of his career, making quality, affordable health care a guaranteed right for every American, not a privilege based on income, or employment, or race, or class – stands at the crossroads in the United States Senate.
As we take on the task of completing his unfinished work, we have ringing in our ears his final statement on what has truly been the cause of his career, delivered in writing to celebrate that bill passing out of committee:
“Americans are an extraordinary people. We have created a nation of liberty and justice. We have defeated forces of oppression, and we have spread prosperity and progress across the globe. When the American people are on the march, there is no barrier that can resist them, no obstacle that can block their path.
“The American people are on the march once more, and they will not stop until quality, affordable health care is the birthright of every American. And we are with them every step of the way."
More posts on Change.org about Sen. Edward Kennedy's legacy:
- Animal Rights
- Gay Rights
- Genocide
- Global Health
- Global Warming
- Homelessness
- Humanitarian Relief
- Immigration
- US Poverty
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Women's Rights
(Photo credit: redandgray on Flickr.)
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Comments (14)
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Author
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Tim has been an online organizer and blogger on health care policy for the Obama for America campaign (during the primaries) and currently for the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare, a labor union for intern and resident doctors. Views expressed here are Tim's, and don't represent the positions of CIR or SEIU.
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To his last day, Ted Kennedy fought to get healthcare for all Americans - not the rich and strong, but the poor and helpless. For 25 years this has been his fight.
Posted by Mary Richards on 08/26/2009 @ 11:23AM PT
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Unfortunately even those who fight the good fight, sometimes fight the wrong fight. First and foremost health care reform needs to start with nutrient dense foods and working towards eliminating/taxing toxins in our environment.
Prior to that we are only treating symptoms of a broader cause.
Posted by john weibel on 09/01/2009 @ 07:28PM PT
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Just added action: re THE KENNEDY BILL (from ActBlue)
http://tinyurl.com/nrd345
Please sign their petition and send to others.
Posted by Lee Dorsey on 08/26/2009 @ 12:58PM PT
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After all, he did so much for us.
We can do this for him.
Posted by Lee Dorsey on 08/26/2009 @ 01:00PM PT
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In addition, today, Thursday, Aug. 27th while being interviewed on THE ED SHOW, Senator Christopher Dodd, said.
"By God Yes, the bill should be named for KENNEDY, it was his life's major work, we must honor him."
Posted by Lee Dorsey on 08/27/2009 @ 04:01PM PT
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This has bi-partisan support and seems to achieve the fundamental "must haves" that the uninsured and underinsured need and that President Obama has outlined. Why are we not all behind this plan?
The plan, known as the Healthy Americans Act, would:
guarantee private health care coverage for all Americans and allow them to choose the health insurance that is right for them;
provide health benefits equal to those that Members of Congress now enjoy;
modernize the employer-employee relationship regarding health care benefits making health care portable from job to job and even allow Americans to keep it between jobs;
provide incentives for individuals and insurers to focus on prevention, wellness and disease management rewarding Americans for maintaining healthy lifestyles;
establish tough cost containment measures that save $1.48 trillion over 10 years;
as demonstrated by the Congressional Budget Office, the plan would pay for itself once the act is up and running by eliminating administrative costs and changing the outdated tax code that gives businesses write-offs for even the most lavish designer health plans;
and return surpluses to the government after the first two years of implementation.
Posted by James Dunham on 08/26/2009 @ 02:33PM PT
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Thank you Sen. Kennedy for fighting for health care reform even while you were dying. We shall honor you and all citizens by ensuring that reform passes with public option. We shall also spay or neuter blue-dog dems. We shall not allow a tiny group of brownshirts and teabaggers from the fringe Republican Party to bully this nation. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta
Posted by Rev Bookburn on 08/27/2009 @ 03:40PM PT
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I feel it is a bit tacky to use this time for any political agenda. Politics is politics, private life is private (real life) another concern.
Posted by M Arnest on 08/29/2009 @ 05:55AM PT
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to his last days, Ted wanted to see health care reform passed - it was his work for 25 years. Even last weekend Kennedy was concerned that a replacement be immediately appointed so that his vote for healthcare gets two votes from Massachusetts!
No one thinks it 'tacky' to continue Kennedy's fight.
Posted by Mary Richards on 08/29/2009 @ 08:03AM PT
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Another of Emily D's frogs.
Posted by M Arnest on 08/29/2009 @ 09:05AM PT
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Ted Kennedy was hardly a nobody or a loner so there is no comparison to be made to Emily's frog!
What a day for you to be commenting on this blog.
Posted by Mary Richards on 08/29/2009 @ 09:51AM PT
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You are in error. I am commenting about the blowhards who want to ride the coat tails of one of the nations finest senators and put words into his mouth he can neither confirm nor refute! I am also in disgust of the animals that continue to gnarl for scraps. There is a time to rest!
Tell us where he rests. You know he worked closely with John McCain and the former President Bush. Obviously, he worked hand in hand with his own party. Who knows what he wanted? The program (universal health care in Mass. is suffering critical meltdown).
I celebrate his knowledge and ability to work with all.
Posted by M Arnest on 08/29/2009 @ 10:05AM PT
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http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4923/content.jsp?content_KEY=2768&tag=hk2_fb
Sign the petition to name the reform bill that passed Kennedy's health committee 'The Kennedy Bill' -- then pass it, and nothing less, through the Senate."
This is what Kennedy wanted.
Posted by Mary Richards on 08/29/2009 @ 01:44PM PT
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Im concerned with healthy living community but im more concirned the medical treats of some practioner in my country.Instead to save the go dead.
Posted by REYNALDA CARMEL OPORTO on 08/30/2009 @ 10:39PM PT
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