Kerry: GOP must step up on healthcare

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., says Republicans must step up and negotiate seriously if healthcare reforms are to be accomplished.

Speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week" a day after the funeral of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Democrats' most ardent supporter of extending healthcare insurance to all Americans, Kerry said someone from the GOP must take the lead in debunking untruths about reform measures and "getting reality onto the table."

"As a member of the Finance Committee, I've been part of this discussion, though many of us would like to see it broadened in some ways," Kerry said. "My question to (Utah Republican Sen.) Orrin (Hatch) and to others is, 'Who is the Republican? Who are the Republicans, plural, who are prepared to step up and do as Ted Kennedy would have done here?'"

Kerry said Kennedy played a key role in instituting healthcare reforms in Massachusetts in which uninsured state residents dropped from 10 percent down to 2.6 percent, "the lowest percentage of uninsured in the nation. And it has worked. And companies have not left. Companies, in fact, are delighted with the better distribution of costs in the state."