Chicago, Aug 30 - US Congresswoman Jan Schekowsky told an audience of Indian Americans, including physicians and other health care providers, that she felt a personal obligation to Senator Edward Kennedy to pass a bill for universal health care in the US this year.

'For me, this is my life's work,' she said.

Schekowsky, a Democratic Congresswoman from Chicago, has been very active on issues like immigration and health care reforms.

Schekowsky said the opponents of the health care reform had raised the decibel level on the debate while obfuscating the issues.

'There are a lot of myths. Maybe our (Democratic party) message has not been clear,' she said.

The packed meeting was organised by the Indo-American Democratic Organization, a political networking group.

'The US is the only industrialized country which does not have health care as a right,' Schekowsky said. She came down heavily on private insurance companies for their arbitrary behaviour.

'Today, private insurance companies can cancel your policy if you fall sick.'

According to recent surveys, over 52 percent of Americans had to forgo or postpone either a screening, treatment, or prescription drug because they could not afford it,' she said.

Schekowsky said that private insurers had high overheads because they had to factor in their huge advertising budgets and their record profits, into the premiums, adding: 'I do not feel an obligation to worry about the profits of private insurers. The insurance industry is exempt from all anti-trust laws. We do not have to pass a hat for the insurance industry.'

Several 'town hall' meetings on the contentious issue of health care reform have been disrupted recently by loud, sometimes even violent, protests from members of the audience. Democratic party members have accused conservative talk show hosts and right wing groups of deliberately spreading misinformation.