Abstract
For the 47 years he served as a U.S. senator, Ted Kennedy was Mr. Healthcare.
He could be counted on to aggressively promote legislation to help the uninsured or to use the power of the federal government to improve the U.S. healthcare system. The number of healthcare laws passed with his name on it or with his help numbered in the hundreds.
But Kennedy was more. He was also willing to compromise his initial position if it would ensure passage of legislation that would help those in need. Among his accomplishments were laws to expand health insurance coverage for children from low-income families, to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and biomedical research, to expand support for people with HIV and AIDS, and most recently, to require insurance parity for mental illness.