33 years of passion

Yesterday,  when I heard the news of Kennedy’s death,  I was in my garden, and the tears came unwittingly. I had no idea why the tears flowed, just that I was sad. Then I realized that I was not crying for  Ted Kennedy or his family, but for this country, that lost a voice it so badly needed right now. I cried because I fear that with the loss of Ted Kennedy, we have lost any hope of passing health care reform. And then I cried when I remembered just how long it had been that Kennedy and smart people like him, have been fighting for health care reform.

It was probably 1976, and I was a young reporter assigned to cover a community meeting on health care for the Boston Herald. Senator Kennedy was there, I can’t remember if he was the speaker, or just there to listen, but I engaged him in a conversation about the topic of the day. At the time, I was a typical 20-something, and health insurance was one of those things, like financial security and mortgages that was a foreign concept to me. So it took some explaining.

The innovation he was promoting was the concept of an Health Maintenance Organization (HMO),  a new type of insurance company that would pay you to stay healthy – what a concept. Kennedy patiently explained the concept, illustrated it with examples, and continued to explain it until I had my ah ha moment, finally grokking the concept. I wrote what I’m sure Fox news would consider a fawning piece on the event. But what I remember most is both Kennedy’s knowledge of the topic and his passion for the issue.  

So yesterday morning, I started counting the years, ,33,  since I first experienced that passion.  That’s a very long time to hang on to a dream. The tragedy of the Kennedy’s is not that their men die to young. But that they die before they can see their dreams come true.  

Comments

[Ulf]

Katie you're not only the measurement queen. You are also a voice of reason and humanity.

[bblack]

…like we’ve all been saying, it’s not a good proposition. Look at Canada and all other countries that have this type of health reform…it’s not beneficial to folks who truly need good and quick health attention.

[Gregg Morris]

Thanks, I'll have to see if I can find that show. IMHO, a lot of the current mess is rooted in that rejection.

[KDPaine]

thank you Gregg! I was reporting then, but don't recall anything specific. However, I did hear that rejection discussed on NPR yesterday. But of course, I can't remember WHICH NPR show it was on, but I'm guessing it was mid afternoon.

[Gregg Morris]

A wonderful, thoughtful and sensitive post. Thank you for sharing that side of you. I think I have you by a few years (sigh) and I have always wondered whether Kennedy regretted that then President Nixon's plan for national health insurance was rejected by the then "liberals & labor unions." Were you reporting at the time that happened and do you have any recollection of the events?