WASHINGTON — In a strategic move to have a strong voice in health care reform in Congress, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., announced last week he has created three committee work groups to forge legislation that would reform the nation's fractured health care system.
Kennedy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been battling a malignant brain tumor and has not been on the Senate floor since July, when he came to cast his vote in favor of the Medicare bill that included the delay of the competitive bidding. He returned to the Senate last Monday, where he announced his three-pronged effort to come up with a comprehensive health care plan.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, will lead a group on prevention and public health, while Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will spearhead a group focusing on quality improvement. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is to lead a group on insurance coverage. (At press time, Clinton was reportedly mulling a position as Secretary of State in President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet).
Kennedy's announcement comes on the heels of a comprehensive health care plan revealed Nov. 12 by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the Senate Finance Committee. And the day after Kennedy announced his panel, Harkin released his own ideas on how best to improve health care, prompting political observers to muse that several Democrats were jockeying for the position of "lead health care reformer."
Kennedy and Baucus, along with ranking minority leaders, were to meet Friday to determine how best to advance health care form in the new Congress.
The ailing senator, who has long championed comprehensive health care, was optimistic that a health care package can be hammered out early next year.
"I will continue to lay the groundwork for early action by Congress on health reform when President Obama takes office in January," said Kennedy. "We're making real progress in our discussions about a consensus approach, and I'm optimistic we'll succeed."
