With all the talk of Ted Kennedy's legacy since his death Tuesday, with all of the reminders of the social-justice causes he championed and the 300 laws he pushed through to make our country better, his biggest piece of unfinished business still nags us like a bad cold.

The fact that we can't have a civil discussion about national health-care reform, much less that we couldn't pass a bill before Kennedy died, is a bitter pill to swallow.

I can see Kennedy glaring out of his half-lenses from a VIP perch in heaven, his booming baritone admonishing the man in the White House: "For God's sake, Barack! I know I couldn't get it done in 47 years, but I was just a senator. You're the president. Stop with the political rope-a-dope. It's hammer time!"

Though grassroots, pro-health care rallies have started to pop up in various cities, a lot of people wonder what's taken so long. After all, universal health care was a touchstone of President Obama's campaign, one thing people rallied around.

Can't keep up

But instead of finding a solution, the conversation has been hijacked by obstructionists who'd rather talk about whether the president is really a citizen - if they aren't offering twisted predictions about who will pull the plug on Grandma.

Meanwhile, our health-insurance bills keep going up as our medical services go down.

And our paychecks haven't been able to keep up with either.

That's why I'm guessing Kennedy is thanking God for folks like Joe Ferraro.

You may not know Ferraro, 48. He calls himself Joe the Nerd because he runs a business building Web sites and fixing computers.

But he's known on radio talk as "Joe from Philly." (He's actually Joe from Audubon, in Montgomery County.)

More importantly, Ferraro's the guy who asked The Health Care Question during Obama's White House interview with host Michael Smerconish last week.

His was the question everybody wanted to ask:

"I'm a little ticked off [because] it feels like your knees are buckling a little bit. You have an overwhelming majority in the House and the Senate. . . . And . . . it's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of people who aren't willing to compromise with you."

Smerconish paraphrased for the president: "Are your knees buckling? That's his question."

15 minutes of fame

Ferraro's question got him noticed by the Huffington Post, where he now blogs. His debut post on health care got 1,500 comments.

"We got to get this pushed through," says Ferraro, who has been active in local politics and volunteered for the Obama campaign. "Having universal health care is the fullest extension of the capitalist argument. It doesn't pay for businesses to cover everybody. They can't afford to."

To Ferraro, the public option, which allows consumers to buy health insurance from the government, making the market more competitive - is nonnegotiable.

"We don't want to close down insurance companies, but the money they're making is insane," Ferraro says. "They're not expanding the capitalist pie, they're perverting it."

By the way, the president did answer Ferraro's question.

"I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health-care reform done," Obama assured. Passing a big bill is, he said, "always messy."

"I would love to have more Republicans involved in the process," the president added.

Which Ferraro took as his marching orders. He's talking up every Republican he knows - neighbors and politicians. He's having one-on-one conversation with his neighbors, informing them about the bill's facts, promising the politicians he'll work to get them reelected if they cross the aisle and vote for it.

It's the least he can do as a concerned citizen - and for the late senator from Massachusetts.

Universal health care would be more than a tribute to Kennedy, Ferraro says. "It's the debt that we owe this guy for everything he's done, everything his family has done.

"They gave us the moon and so much more."

Contact columnist Annette John-Hall at 215-854-4986 or ajohnhall@phillynews.com. Read her work: http://go.philly.com/annette