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Bob Graham is executive editor at Insurance & Financial Advisor and IFAwebnews.com.

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Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death yesterday may be used to ignite calls for health care reform (read: health insurance reform), but in the end his death may mean the final dagger for those reform efforts.

The Massachusetts senator’s death of brain cancer at 77 gives the Obama Administration, if it takes it, the unique opportunity to tie its health care reform efforts to his name. Long rumored, tagging health care reform to Ted Kennedy’s name would be a great legacy – if true reform passed.

Unfortunately, the loss of Ted Kennedy, whose seat won’t be filled until late in the year, hurts reform efforts in several ways. First, his empty seat removes a Democratic vote from the Senate at a time when Democrats already fear the defection of several members when the big vote on health reform finally occurs. No doubt, a handful of Democrats preparing to ditch their party and suffer the wrath of President Barack Obama probably breathe easier today, knowing that the loss of Kennedy’s vote will be enough to kill reform in Congress.

Congress needs a Ted Kennedy to pull things together in the fall. Kennedy had the ability to cross aisles, to get Republicans and Democrats to join forces on key reform efforts. No one else had the power of Ted Kennedy to get Congress to act on these big-ticket items like No Child Left Behind, the American with Disabilities Act, voters and civil rights legislation, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

For all of Ted Kennedy’s many political and personal successes and failures, his death is the likely death of chance of unity on health reform this year and perhaps ever. One has to hope his name isn’t sullied by being tied to what seems more likely today to be a failing effort.