Political Positions
He was a chief sponsor of one of the major pieces of legislation of 2008, the Mental Health Parity Act, a bill requiring most group health plans to provide coverage for the treatment of mental illnesses that is comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses.
He is a strong proponent of adding a comprehensive prescription-drug benefit to the U.S. Medicare and has consistently opposed attempts to privatize the Medicare program. Kennedy has also made numerous speeches advocating the reorientation of the U.S. health-care system to preventive care. He has received numerous awards for his health-care advocacy, including being named the recipient of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Paul E. Tsongas Memorial Award as well as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Congressional Honors Award.
Read more about this topic: Patrick J. Kennedy
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“Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“An ... important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)