For the coming political battle, the last Kennedy of his generation is sounding the trumpet for health care reform.
“Over the last year,” he writes in a Boston Globe OpEd, “I’ve seen our healthcare system up close. I’ve benefitted from the best of medicine, but I’ve also witnessed the frustration and outrage of patients and doctors alike as they face the challenges of a system that shortchanges millions of Americans.”
In his manifesto, Kennedy hits all the notes of Obama’s proposal for change and, albeit in a somewhat tentative way, for the highest of all. After promising more transparency in health insurance plans, negotiation for lower premiums and regulation to prevent denial of coverage for previously existing conditions, Kennedy writes:
“We’re also hearing that some Americans want the choice of enrolling in a health insurance program backed by the government for the public good, not private profit–so that option will be available too.”
That wording presages the crucial struggle to include a Medicare-for-all provision in the bill that would put pressure on private insurers to compete in the health care market instead of maximizing their profits.