Once in the Senate, Kennedy charted the traditional path of an ambitious young lawmaker. He championed big causes, including civil rights, improving health care, and alleviating poverty. One of his first triumphs was the 1964 passage of an immigration reform bill that lifted the quota system; Kennedy managed that bill on the Senate floor. He sought leadership roles and was elected Senate Democratic whip in 1969, beating the powerful Louisiana senator Russell B. Long (D). By then, Kennedy had buried his brother Robert Kennedy, and was emerging as the family standard-bearer.
But the Chappaquiddick incident a few months later would deliver a mortal blow to Kennedy’s ambitions, eliminating his party leadership prospects, much less his presidential hopes. Instead Kennedy placed his energy in legislating, and over the next four decades would help to secure a series of landmark bills.
Master Legislator
Those measures include 1971 legislation that vastly increased federal cancer research; the 1972 Title IX amendment to an education bill, resulting in expanded women’s sports programs; and a 1974 campaign finance reform bill aimed at eliminating Watergate-era abuses. Kennedy was a key player in the 1986 veto override that established sanctions against the apartheid-led South African government.
Kennedy helped to institute family leave protections and improved student loan terms and to bar health insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. He led an 11-year effort to raise the federal minimum wage, finally succeeding in 2007. 
Despite his proudly partisan positions on most issues, Kennedy has a long history of collaborating with Republicans. Much to the frustration of many of his Democratic colleagues, who were still chafing over the 2000 election outcome, Kennedy helped George W. Bush to pass the most significant domestic policy bills of his presidency, the No Child Left Behind education act and the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
In 1980, Kennedy finally succumbed to pressure from supporters by entering the presidential waters.. But a combination of factors, ranging from Chappaquiddick to the Iran hostage crisis, resulted in a disappointing 10 primary victories, compared to Carter’s 24 victories. But Kennedy ended his bid on a high note, delivering his most memorable speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.
“For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end,” Kennedy concluded. “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Universal Health Care
The senator’s May 2008 brain cancer diagnosis at once complicated and made more poignant Kennedy’s quest to pass his cherished legislative goal, universal health care. Around the time of his diagnosis, when Obama’s electoral prospects remained murky, Kennedy launched a bipartisan Senate effort to begin assembling such legislation, with the ambitious goal of yielding legislation in 2009.
As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he heads one of two Senate committees with purview over the hot issue. The other key player is Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is crafting a bill with ranking member Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
Even as he underwent treatments, Kennedy assembled representatives from key interests groups to met in secret to hammer out details of reform beyond the media spotlight. These stakeholders became known as the "Workhorse Group."
In late spring 2009, prospects for reform were looking up, and a healthier Kennedy returned to the stage as a major-player in the health-reform debate.
Kennedy's committee was the first to release a proposal for health-reform legislation.In the proposal, and in a Boston Globe editorial published shortly after,Kennedy outlined steps for a progressive reform of the system, aimed at driving the debate—and the Baucus-Grassley proposal—further to the left.
Echoing 2006 reforms in Massachusetts, he proposed a National Health Insurance Exchange, a gateway through which Americans could compare insurance plans and purchase them online, on the phone or in person.
In addition to the private plans offered on the exchange, Kennedy proposed offering a publicly-funded insurance plan "to ensure that fiscal discipline and full accountabiliity are built into this new structure." The shape of a public plan looks to be one of the most controversial aspects of the health-reform debate.
In addition to creating a national exchange, Kennedy's plan contained these core parts:
* It would require insurance companies to offer coverage to all Americans, regardless of pre-existing illnesses. On the flip side, he would require all Americans to carry insurance coverage, so consumers could not wait until they were sick to buy insurance.
*Businesses with more than 25 employees would be required to offer them health coverage, or else pay a $750 annual fee per full-time employee.
*It would offer federal subsidies on a sliding scale to those with incomes up to four times the poverty level. The plan would also include an expansion of the Medicaid, a federal-state program that gives health coverage to the poor.
*It would create federal or state Afordable Health Benefit Gateways, exchanges on which individuals could choose and purchase health insurance.
*It would focus on wellness and disease-prevention.
*It would train a workforce of doctors, nurses and health-care workers to accomodate America's growing needs.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost about $600 billion over 10 years.
With Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) serving as acting chairman in Kennedy's absence, the HELP committee approved the full bill in July in a 13 to 10 vote along party lines.
