After months of speculation about the details of his health care reform legislation, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has unveiled the major tenets of his efforts, including a government-run insurance plan.

Edward M. Kennedy

In an op-ed piece, published in the Boston Globe May 28, Kennedy discussed five major elements of legislation to be discussed by his Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“An important foundation of our legislation is the following principle: If you like the coverage you have now, you keep it,” Kennedy wrote. “But if you don’t have health insurance or don’t like the insurance you have, our bill will give you new, more affordable options.”

The senator said the proposal establishes new “gateways” to better health across the nation, with online, telephone or in person access to figure out the best policy for Americans.

“Through the gateway, we will facilitate choice by allowing consumers to compare the costs and benefits of different health insurance policies,” he wrote. “We’ll negotiate with insurance companies to keep premiums and copays low and help you with your premiums if you can’t afford them. We’ll make it illegal for insurers to deny coverage because of a preexisting condition or to impose other restrictions that keep you from getting the care you need.”

Kennedy added that the committee his hearing “that some Americans want the choice of enrolling in a health insurance program backed by the government for the public good, not private profit – so that option will be available too.”

“If we succeed in providing good health insurance options and make them affordable to all Americans regardless of income, then people should have a responsibility to buy it for their families,” he wrote. “That way insurance companies and hospitals will no longer have to tack the cost of uncompensated care to the uninsured onto the medical bills and premiums of those with insurance.”

Other elements of the pending legislation include cost reduction by addressing fraud and abuse, a new emphasis on prevention, aiding the elderly and disabled to live at home and function independently, and investing in training for health care professionals, according to the Globe op-ed piece.

“Change is never easy, but the status quo is no longer acceptable to any except those who profit from the current broken healthcare system,” Kennedy concluded. “We cannot afford to wait – or to fail. And we will do neither. And when successful reform takes hold, the American people will wonder what has taken us so long.”