Late Sen. Kennedy would have voted for health bill, widow says in urging passage

The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) would have voted for the healthcare reform bill before the Senate, his widow said this weekend.

Vicki Kennedy, the senator's wife, urged her husband's former colleagues to pass healthcare reform.

"The bill before the Senate, while imperfect, would achieve many of the goals Ted fought for during the 40 years he championed access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans," Kennedy wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post to be published in print on Sunday.

Sen. Kennedy died in August after a decades-long career in the Senate and a battle with brain cancer. During his career, the surviving son of a American political dynasty focused on healthcare, the issue he called the cause of his life.

Mrs. Kennedy argued the bill in the Senate would make substantial accomplishments in extending insurance protections, extending healthcare coverage, making insurers cover preexisting conditions, and other areas.

"The bill before Congress will finally deliver on the urgent needs of all Americans," she said. "That, in the end, must be the test of reform. That was always the test for Ted Kennedy."

"So I humbly ask his colleagues to finish the work of his life, the work of generations, to allow the vote to go forward and to pass health-care reform now," Kennedy added. "As Ted always said, when it's finally done, the people will wonder what took so long."

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