Sen. Kennedy begins healthcare push

BOSTON, July 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has begun meetings to lay the groundwork for a new plan for universal healthcare, the Boston Globe reports.

Among those involved are experts on healthcare and members of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's staff. Kennedy supports Obama, D-Ill., the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

"The senator is trying to learn from health reform attempts in the past and to build a fair amount of consensus among his Senate colleagues, House colleagues, and the Obama campaign ... and find a strategy that could carry with some momentum into the new administration," said Dr. Jay Himmelstein, a former Kennedy staffer now teaching health policy at the University of Massachusetts.

Kennedy, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, told his staff to begin meetings while he was being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The last major push for universal healthcare occurred at the beginning of President Bill Clinton's first term.