Ted Kennedy

[choie]

Does anybody know if Ted Kennedy attended the SOTU? I'm hoping he boycotted it.

[ginnyinWI]

1. I think I saw him there. n/t

[Coexist]

2. Why would anyone in DC boycott the SOTU

sometimes you're on the winning team, sometimes the losing, but you always show up for the after-party!

[leftstreet]

3. I don't know. But check out his Medicare For All plan

I don't know all the details of his plan, but this Administration is going to push hard for HSAs.

We need to get the universal healthcare coverage talking point out there.

some snips

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-37.htm

An essential part of our progressive vision is an America where no citizen of any age fears the cost of health care, and no employer refuses to create new jobs or cuts back on current jobs because of the high cost of providing health insurance.

The answer is Medicare, whose 40th birthday we will celebrate in July. I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen - from birth to the end of life.


For those who prefer private insurance, we will offer comparable coverage under the same range of private insurance plans already available to Congress. I can think of nothing more cynical or hypocritical than a Member of Congress who gives a speech denouncing health care for all, then goes to his doctor for a visit paid for by the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan.

I call this approach Medicare for All, because it will free all Americans from the fear of crippling medical expenses and enable them to seek the best possible care when illness strikes.

The battle to achieve Medicare for All will not be easy. Powerful interests will strongly oppose it, because they profit immensely from the status quo. Right wing forces will unleash false attack ads ranting against socialized medicine and government-run health care.

But those attacks are a generation out of date - retreads of the failed campaign that delayed Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, we are immunized against such attacks by the obvious success of Medicare. It is long past time to extend that success to all.