APRIL 10, 1997
When Rebecca Onie ’97 and the group she founded, Project HEALTH, first contacted Sen. Edward Kennedy ’54-56 in November 1996 about speaking about children’s health at the Kennedy School, she was guardedly optimistic. When the senator not only agreed to speak but then proceeded to announce plans for a major health care reform bill before a packed ARCO Forum audience in April, she was ecstatic.
“Senator Kennedy has traditionally been a strong advocate of children’s health care and we were, very eager for him to come,” Onie said. “We had no idea how perfect the timing would be.”
Kennedy and the other speakers gathered by Onie’s group were, in turn, not hesitant in expressing their excitement that a group of young people was trying to make a difference in the complicated struggle to improve health care for children.
Before beginning his speech, Kennedy recognized planners Onie, Michael Maii ’99, Supinda Bunyavanich ’99, and Rucker Alex ’99 by asking them to stand. Alex is chair of the projects committee at the Institute of Politics, Project HEALTH’s parent organization. Bunyavanich and Maii are members of Project HEALTH.
Robert Restuccia, executive director of the advocacy group Health Care for All, who also spoke during the program, praised the student organizers and the other students in attendance.
“You are the troops of the future,” he said. “Get out and organize.”
For Onie, Maii, and Bunyavanich and the other 32 undergraduate volunteers who work with Project HEALTH, that is exactly what they have been doing. The acronym stands for “Project Helping Empower, Advocate & Lead Through Health.”
The group operates nine public service programs out of the Boston Medical Center, ranging from a program aimed at helping inner-city children with asthma to one that screens families visiting the Medical Center’s pediatrics department for eligibility in federal benefits programs. Medical Center staff members serve as mentors for the student volunteers.
“The purpose of Project HEALTH is to give undergraduates a chance to witness the interconnectedness between social ills while also working to rectify them,” Onie said.
Setting up a forum and attracting a prominent national figure like Senator Kennedy immediately struck Onie as a great way to present the issues related to children’s health to the Harvard community.
Barry Zuckerman, pediatrics department chair at the Boston Medical Center, helped Onie set up Project HEALTH and spoke at the April forum. It’s unusual to see students actually follow through on such big plans, he said.
“When they came in to me and brought up the idea of the forum, I was happy to offer my advice,” Zuckerman said. “People ask me for advice all the time, but usually that is the last you hear of it.”
Addressing a Serious Problem
In April, the Project HEALTH students found support not only from Kennedy, but also from panel members, who included a Harvard professor, the head of a health care advocacy group, and the president of one of the largest health maintenance organizations in the United States.
Kennedy and the other speakers attributed their attendance to a desire to let the students know that they too take the issue of children’s health seriously.
“There are 10 million children out there without any insurance, and it’s a serious problem,” Kennedy said. “The emergency room is their primary-care doctor and 90 percent of their parents work. These are the sons and daughters of working families, families that play by the rules.”
Kennedy’s Insurance and Deficit Reduction Act, which he announced at the forum, would provide health insurance for these children. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
According to Kennedy, the bill borrows significantly from existing state and private sector programs that have proved successful.
The program would be funded by a 43-cent increase in the cigarette tax, an increase that Kennedy believes would nicely complement a program that has the stated goal of improving children’s health.
“The cigarette companies are enslaving children,” Kennedy said. “They are going after kids 14 and younger and making them addicts.”
The other panelists — Restuccia; Zuckerman; Theda Skocpol, professor of government and of sociology; William VanFaasen, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Massachusetts; and Sheila Burke, executive dean at the Kennedy School — all found reason for optimism in Kennedy’s speech.
Burke, once an aide to former Sen. Robert Dole and a self-proclaimed “moderate conservative,” praised the bipartisan nature of the bill.
She quoted former Vice President Hubert Humphrey in her remarks, arguing that it was a “test of the nation” to look at how a country “treats those at the dawn of life.”
The Project HEALTH members were pleased to be recognized for their efforts, but also greatly inspired to continue their work.
“We were thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” Onie said. “It was great to see the culmination of all our planning and to see the work we do on a day-to-day basis discussed before such a large group.”