Kudos to Kennedy on Kids' Health

We applaud Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.) for his latest efforts to provide healthcare for America's under-privileged children. The new bill he announced last week here at the ARCO Forum proposes a 43-cent tax on cigarettes to fund guaranteed health insurance for 10 million children.

Kennedy's announcement is all the more encouraging because the bill was co-written by Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, a conservative. One would therefore think that the bill would receive widespread bipartisan support. But some prominent Republicans have taken to calling it the "Kennedy Bill," and so it is now far from clear that the bill will pass. Certainly, the tobacco companies will protest the legislation. However, we believe that their recent legal--and consequently political--difficulties make it less likely that they will succeed this time. We would like to see both parties and both houses of Congress cooperate on an issue so crucial to the nation.

But while this bill is a step in the right direction, there is much more to be done on the healthcare front. As Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol pointed out at a recent Institute of Politics forum, healthcare is a "family problem, not just a children's problem." We hope that the Congress can build on the strength of this legislation and rescue the larger issue of affordable healthcare from the political ashtray of previous governmental efforts.