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It’s karmic and appropriate in more ways than Senator Byrd or those petitioning for it thought.

Both the idea of reforming healthcare and Ted Kennedy started with noble intentions – meaning to help the people.

Ted Kennedy hang on to it at least until his vote against the war in 2003. Healthcare reform’s original intent still exists in a house bill.

But along the way, Ted also left us No Child Left Behind.

Amd the healthcare reforms underwent many changes – ignoring single payer completely

To recap, here’s what ended up happening with health care. First, they gave away single-payer before a single gavel had fallen, apparently as a bargaining chip to the very insurers mostly responsible for creating the crisis in the first place. Then they watered down the public option so as to make it almost meaningless, while simultaneously beefing up the individual mandate, which would force millions of people now uninsured to buy a product that is no longer certain to be either cheaper or more likely to prevent them from going bankrupt.

and ditching even  it’s weak replacement “public option. It will be something imposing a burden only on those it was originally meant to protect: the parients – which now will have a mandate to buy insurance swelling the insurers’ pockets with a captive market. A bad bill.

And were the two trajectories from good to bad coincidental? No. Ted Kennedy earned the right to have the name on this awful bill by his direct actions

But aides to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose staff has been meeting with the insurers along with a broad array of health care advocates, employers and providers to develop a major health reform initiative for Congress to consider next year, was encouraged by the insurers’ presentation.

(presentation which looks extremely close to what’s in the senate now)

Insurers oppose the creation of a Medicare-style public insurance option, which both President-elect Barack Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus have proposed, which they believe will force private companies to compete with government on an uneven playing field. The insurers also do not support an employer mandate.

See? It was all there! Last December. It had became  subject of popular revolt only months after that. It;s been a revelation to me too to see the talking points source today.

And just so I don’t leave any confusion about what Baucus and Obama allegedly proposed, they too met with the insurance executives back in February

So, yeah. I may even join that petition. By all means, this healthcare bill, has to have Ted Kennedy’s name on it.

Especially as someone might actually get miffed

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Update

Someone agrees with me – to a point

Naming a bad bill after Teddy is an insult to his memory.

But then again, Jane missed those meetings with the insurers last December.