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Top senator in US health care debate announces cancer
2009-08-01
NEW YORK (AFP) - A key Democratic senator in President Barack Obama's battle to enact health care reform announced Friday he has cancer -- and that his diagnosis shows why change is needed. Senator Christopher Dodd, the ranking Democrat on the health, education, labor and pensions committee, told a news conference he would undergo surgery for prostate cancer in August during the congressional recess. Dodd, 65, is a key figure in Obama's effort to push through major health care reform legislation. He pointed out that prostate cancer was "very common" for men his age and used his announcement to lobby for Obama's attempt to make health insurance accessible to the entire country. "The benefit of being in Congress and having a good health care plan is not one available to everyone," he said. While he had managed to detect his disease early thanks to an annual medical checkup, "that physical may not be something you can afford," he said at the televised press conference in Hartford, in his home state of Connecticut. "We can talk in abstractions about health care, but in some ways what I'm going through many people do," he said. "It's not about me -- it's about people without health care, the ones under-insured." He conceded that the White House push had hit serious roadblocks. "I know it's hard, it's controversial," he said, but "while things fell apart a bit this week I'm confident we'll get it back on track." Dodd said he would need only "brief recuperation" at home and intended to run for re-election in November 2010. "I'm running for re-election," he said, adding jokingly: "I'll be running without a prostate but I'll be a better candidate."
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