The Spirit of Matt's Law

In 1972, my two-year old son Matt was diagnosed with what doctors said was terminal cancer. My wife Jane and I were told he probably wouldn’t live six weeks. In the end, we were among the most fortunate in more ways than one. My law firm had a health plan, and it paid for new and experimental therapies for Matt. That insurance plan, the talented doctors and nurses, and the grace of God saved Matt’s life.

Millions of people in this country are not nearly as lucky as we were. How can we, the richest country on this earth, continue to do nothing while 45 million Americans live without health coverage? In this election, I’m giving voters a simple and clear choice: you can stay with the failed Bush economic policies or you can vote for my bold ideas to turn our economy around and create jobs. My ideas come straight from my personal experience as an elected official and most importantly, as a parent. Everyday I learn from my three kids, Matt, Chrissy and Kate. I’m proud of the paths they chose in their lives and it is their experiences and their input that has had the most effect on my life.

As president, my first priority will be to pass a law requiring every employer to offer health care benefits. I will help employers cover the cost of insurance by repealing the Bush tax cuts and giving back to every employer 60 percent of what they spend on their employees’ health care. My plan will make sure that those who don’t have health insurance get covered, and that those who do have health insurance never lose their coverage. I call my plan Matt’s Plan, in honor of my son. Matt’s Plan means that all workers--part-time, full-time, private sector, government employees, non-profit and self-employed--will have access to quality health care that can never be taken away.

The result of adding millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured means more preventive care, far fewer trips to the emergency room and lower health care costs for everyone. The truth is, the economic stimulus created by this plan will pump billions of dollars into the economy—creating jobs and helping far more working Americans than would ever be helped by the Bush tax cuts, and giving them the security of health care when they need it.

When Matt was sick, I remember the nights we spent in the hospital waiting room talking to the parents of another patient—a child with severe cancer from a family who couldn’t afford health insurance. Those parents didn’t know what to do. All they could do was pray. As long as I live, I will never forget the terror in their eyes. In this country, it should never be this way.

This is a bold, innovative idea that can work—an idea that can bridge a canyon of fear and illness and cover everyone in America with health insurance, and jump start the economy at the same time. It’s morally right and economically sensible. George W. Bush hasn’t come up with any plan for health care while millions of people have lost their insurance in the last two years. He is dropping the ball across the board on moving our economy forward, improving our health and increasing our security. In addition to my health care plan I am proposing a Teacher Corps. For any student willing to become a teacher and teach in a school where they are needed for five years, the federal government will pay your school loans. My daughter Kate has her master’s degree in education, yet was paid just $17,000 for her first teaching job. I believe more young people would become teachers—and would be outstanding teachers—if they could afford to teach and pay off their loans after college. I don’t want to miss any teachers like Kate. I also have a plan to end our dependence on Middle East oil. Decades ago our country helped invent solar, wind and hydrogen technology, but we’ve never had a president make the case to the American people that we must invest in these renewable resources to increase our security, improve our environment and get us off our unsustainable oil dependency. I will make that case not just to the American people, but also to the energy industries that we need to bring into the next century. I’ve proposed economic measures to help workers retire with more security, stop globalization without standards and get our economy moving again.

But at the center of my campaign is always my health care plan. It is probably the best example of how I will approach being president and I believe offers the clearest difference between George W. Bush and myself. George W. Bush believes that we’re all separate from each other, that if you make it that’s great but if you don’t that’s just too bad for you. I believe we are all tied together, that as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I can’t be what I ought to be until you can be what you ought to be.” As president, every day in the Oval Office I want to work towards helping people reach their God-given potential. Nobody left out and nobody left behind.

Representative Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., is former Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and a candidate for U.S. president. He will be appearing at “Conversation with the Candidates in Kirkland House at 4:30 p.m. and on “Hardball” at the Institute of Politics at 6 p.m. this evening.