Medicare For All

Roger Hickey, codirector of America's Campaign for the Future, writes about Ted Kennedy and health care reform:

Let’s get a few things straight:

Until last year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s health
care bill (co-authored with with Rep. John Dingell) was a bill known as Medicare for All. Not expensive private
insurance for some, but Medicare [a public insurance plan] for All.

Senator Kennedy encouraged candidate and then President Obama to make
health care for all his first priority -- during the campaign and as he took
office.

And Ted Kennedy remained in charge as his HELP (Health,
Education and Labor and Pension) Committee wrote -- and then passed -- a new
health care bill with a strong public insurance option for those who want
it.

I feel the need to remind people of all this because conservatives, and
especially Republican Senators, are trying to promote the idea that if only Ted
Kennedy were still actively involved in the health care reform effort, he could
have gotten the Democrats to fold and embrace a weakened “bi-partisan”
compromised health reform strategy. And some are urging that the best
tribute we could construct to the great man’s memory is to pass such a
watered-down health bill that could win the support of a large number of
conservative Republicans.