In honor of Senator Ted Kennedy legacy, pass health care reform

By Rosa Rosales on 10/26/2009 @ 11:30 AM

Thirty-nine years ago, Senator Kennedy introduced his first bill to overhaul our nation's broken healthcare system and provide affordable coverage to all Americans. Health care reform was referred by Senator Kennedy as the cause of his life and today we are closer than ever to achieving his dream. As the Senator stated time and time again, ‘we believe that access to healthcare should be a right — not a privilege — in this country.’ Thus to honor his wish we shall pass health care legislation this year.

Let us continue his cause. Let us take action this year to pass healthcare reform. And let us make Kennedy's vision for America a reality.

Reforming health care in this country is an urgent matter. For decades, we have endured a broken system that restricts and denies coverage when individuals need it most, leaving many of us one illness away from bankruptcy. Today, over 46 million Americans do not have health care coverage. More than 30% of Latinos are uninsured.

Our current flawed broken health care system leaves tens of millions of Americans without coverage, resulting in poor health and substandard levels of service. If we don’t take the necessary actions to reform the system while we have the chance, it will be a long time before the opportunity arises again. We have a choice: We can use this crucial time to shape workable health care reform proposals for our families, or we can waste it away by caving to the disruptive behavior of those who will never support reform.

The public option is central to real healthcare reform. Reform that lowers costs and ensures all Americans get the quality and affordable healthcare.

We are open to bipartisanship on legislation that results in concrete action and solutions. The basic principle of any bipartisan solution must be to ensure that health care is about the individual. We can achieve this through a public option.

Thus far, we have experienced attacks on the public option. For example, this month attacks on the public option have been rife with doublespeak. We hear from conservatives that they do not want government involved but on the other hand do not want their government provided Medicare taken away.

The Latino community cannot afford to go another year without health care reform. Every day whether it's the graduate student who can't afford to pay for coverage or the homeless mother and her two children that are going from one relative's home to another, we must ensure that all Americans have access to coverage. A public plan option has the potential to promote competition, help bring down costs and increase coverage for all Americans.