Though the Republican takeover in Congress will make it more difficult to realize the goal of universal health care, Sen. Edward Kennedy said he will continue to fight for it last night while accepting an award for his ongoing work to promote higher standards for public health.
Kennedy, the sixth recipient of the Julius B. Richmond Award, used his acceptance as a forum to express his belief in the imperative need for universal health care. His speech was received with a standing ovation from the roughly 400 health workers, students and doctors who were in attendance at the reception at the Copley Fairmount Plaza Ball Room.
It is ‘imperative to take early action’ on the issue next year in Congress, Kennedy said, acknowledging the task will be difficult with the partisan balance in Congress.
‘If good coverage is available to every member of the Senate, the House and to the president, it should be available for everyone else, too,’ he said.
‘Some will say that enacting universal health care is too daunting a task for congress, but we’ve just created a new Department of Homeland Security Congress passed this in a matter of days!’ Kennedy exclaimed. ‘If Congress can do this, then we can do the same for universal health care.
‘Health care is needed for everyone,’ he continued. ‘The time is long overdue for America to join the rest of the world in recognizing that fact.’
The honor, given by Harvard University’s School of Public Health, is given to those who have done commendable work in the field of public health in the spirit of Julius B. Richmond, professor of health policy emeritus at Harvard Medical School.
The number of people in the United States without health care has reached 41 million this year, Kennedy said, and it is still rising. He described this figure as both ‘shameful’ and ‘intolerable.’
‘The cost of our inaction is phenomenal,’ he said, citing the fact that currently the United States pays twice per capita what other industrialized countries that insure all their citizens pay. ‘We pay for it in the coin of human suffering.’
Richmond himself spoke at the event, calling Kennedy the ‘social conscience of the American people.’ Richmond is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and has also been the assistant secretary of health under President Carter, the U.S. surgeon general from 1977-1981 and was the first national director of the Head Start Program.
‘In every venue that he speaks, he indicates that health care is a fundamental human right that we need to bring to the universe of our population,’ Richmond said. ‘We are deeply in his debt for keeping those issues alive.’
Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard University, agreed with Richmond, saying Kennedy has ‘fought to make America a better place’ and pointing out his accomplishments are ‘a book’s length.’
‘Success in politics depends on two things – principles and convictions – and Ted Kennedy has had that throughout his political life,’ Summers said. ‘He has worked not for the fortunate or well-off but for the people holding on to jobs, the people born into families without many opportunities and he has never wavered from that commitment.’
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