Energy Express by Marilynn Preston

Soon Congress will return to session and continue the all-important work of health care reform. The law that is or is not passed will affect every one of us. I know you're sick of this stuff. So am I. But be patient — change is in the air.

I got a big, energizing whiff of it over the weekend, watching the funeral that was also the celebration of the life of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy took up many underdog causes in the Senate, but the one that he fought the hardest and longest for was health care reform.

Make it better, he would say year after year for all of his 47 years in Washington. Include everyone, young and old, from birth to death. Infuse it with social justice, with compassion, with higher quality care for all. Pay attention to physical health and mental health. Make it affordable and community-based, and emphasize personal responsibility and prevention.

Kennedy fought for a public option to become the law of the land. That's the part he didn't live to see, but in certain indescribable and profound ways, his death may give new life to his dream.

So let's call it Tedicare — Medicare for the Rest of Us, the public option refined and redefined at a precise moment in history when emotions are raw, and the pain is real, and the Kennedy name has the power to heal a nation longing for reconciliation and change.

"The work of compassion must continue," Ted's young granddaughter Kiley said at his funeral, "so every American will have decent quality health care as a right, not a privilege."

Tedicare. No offense meant, but let's face it, America loves a cute name. Think of Yahoo, Twitter, Cash for Clunkers. Would Google by Google if they called it The World Wide Search Engine?

It's all about the framing and, in this case, the renaming. Calling it The Public Option just isn't working. It's too vague, too obscure, too close to Public Enemy or something equally cold and user-unfriendly.

Calling it Tedicare puts the heart back into it, and according to all the eulogies spoken at his death, it is the heart of this man that mattered most of all.

"He had a moral obligation to help others in need," son Ted Kennedy Jr.

told us, painting the picture of a man who was loved and loving, funny and self-deprecating, a man who understood the power of hard work and redemption.

It's going to take a lot of hard work in the coming weeks to redeem and pass a public option that is worthy of the legacy of Ted Kennedy. But it can happen. Tedicare, even if it's just the nickname of a bold, wellness-based health care reform bill, can provide higher quality medical care at a lower cost than most people are getting now — that's not hard — AND it can provide incentives, rewards and proper lifestyle counseling for those Americans who want to enjoy healthier, happier lives.

Compassionate end-of-life care is a bonus feature of Tedicare, nothing to hide from or fear. Ted Kennedy was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers who died peacefully as opposed to violently, surrounded by his loved ones, calm and confident to the end. His final days were not sad or terrifying, his son Ted tells us. That's the kind of death we all hope for and would choose, and it's the kind of end-of-life care that is part of health care reform.

Or is it?

It's time to spell it out, paint the picture, give Americans something positive and progressive to say yes to.

Will Tedicare be competition for our current system of private insurers? Yes, indeed. In America, we teach our young people that competition is a good thing. Competition is what drives humans to evolve and change and create a new and better world.

Ted Kennedy worked hard to evolve and grow and change for the better. If his death now helps to make his most cherished cause a reality, I think he'd feel proud and pleased, and laugh the hardest at the irony of it all.

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! PAIN WE CAN BELIEVE IN

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." — Ted Kennedy Jr., repeating his father's 1980 Democratic National Convention Speech.

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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