Ted Kennedy on Health Insurance

This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.

— Ted Kennedy

I haven't always agreed with Ted Kennedy, but on this issue he has been absolutely, and tenaciously, right.

Why in the world would anyone prefer to have a private, for profit, insurance company rationing health care rather than We, the People, jointly sharing the costs and benefits?

I don't want the Canadian plan, but it's better than the status quo.
I don't want the French plan, but it's better than the status quo.
I don't want the British plan, but it's better than the status quo.

I want an American plan, drawing on the best ideas from all the other industrialized nations, a plan that will guard our right to keep our doctors and even our private insurance if that is what any one of us wants, but that also has a public option to help reduce costs and insure that every American has health care when he or she needs it.

Please call/write/e-mail your Congressmen and Senators. Doing nothing is not acceptable. Let them know we will not let them bankrupt our nation by refusing to reform the monstrous status quo. Let them know we are tired of for-profit insurance companies rationing health care. Let them know that the majority of us want universal coverage for every American.

Health insurance reform -- WITH a public option -- this year!