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Name the Public Option for Ted Kennedy

For several weeks now it has occurred to me that the cause of achieving a real health care reform bill in Congress would be advanced if the public insurance option in it had a name — something more specific than “the public option”.

You know, how Medicare is called Medicare and Social Security is called Social Security? Giving things names helps imbue them with meaning, endows them with a more potent sense of reality.

That’s why I had one of those “Aha!” moments when I read David Waldman’s post last week at the Congress Matters blog “Name the public option, not the bill, after Kennedy”.

Following the sad passing of Ted Kennedy, a host of Democrats including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) had begun very sympathetic and heartfelt calls to name the entire (but still far from finalized) health care bill for Senator Edward Kennedy.

For forty-seven years Ted Kennedy was the single strongest advocate for health care reform and for quality health care as a right, not simply a privilege for those who could afford it. His absence from the Senate during his illness this year still did not deter him from weighing in to support the public option:

“Kennedy has co-sponsored a resolution introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and 26 other Democratic senators that declares the healthcare reform legislation the Senate will consider this summer must include a public plan option people can choose instead of private insurance. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also co-sponsored the resolution.”

David Waldman’s suggestion to name the public option for Ted Kennedy now makes both political and moral sense.

“Let the affordable health care coverage itself that the public option will make available be what carries Kennedy’s name. Like the (Sen. William) Roth IRA (established in a Republican reconciliation bill, by the way), (Sen. Claiborne) Pell grants, or (Sen. J. William) Fulbright scholarships, we and future generations of Americans should enjoy comprehensive coverage under the Kennedy Health Care Plan.”

As David correctly notes, versions of the bill itself may be weakened during coming legislative fisticuffs — especially if the Max Baucus Secret Caucus in the Senate Finance Committee has a lot to do with it. But the public option is in all the current House versions and in Senator Kennedy’s HELP Committee version, thanks to the leadership of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and his Democratic colleagues. Naming the public option for Ted Kennedy now would help establish its place in the bill, making it all the more difficult for any Democrat to oppose it.

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake likes the idea too. How could Congress add the Kennedy name to the plan? David Waldman says it’s easy: “just put it there”. And if, in the end, the entire bill does measure up to the Kennedy standards for real reform, then the bill itself can be named for him even after it passes.

Tags: Health Care, public option, Ted Kennedy