Kennedy joins Mass. healthcare push

US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who rarely gets involved in debates on Beacon Hill, has jumped into the battle to expand healthcare coverage in Massachusetts by phoning legislative leaders, lobbying worried business owners, and delivering a pep talk to rank-and-file lawmakers.

In an interview with the Globe, Kennedy declined to endorse any of the plans pending on Beacon Hill, but he offered praise for the controversial insurance mandates on employers and individuals in a bill passed by the House last month. Kennedy, a Democrat, has long advocated for a federal requirement that employers provide health insurance for their workers.

And, for more than three decades, Kennedy has been one of the country's foremost advocates for expanding healthcare coverage, so his views will carry great weight as legislators negotiate a compromise between competing House and Senate initiatives. He described himself as ''sort of a foot soldier" in the state effort, but left little doubt that he is deeply invested in the outcome on Beacon Hill.

''We have just tried to be a constructive and encouraging presence on this. We realize this is going to be written by the players in Massachusetts, and that's obviously the way it should be," Kennedy said. ''I would be enormously thrilled if Massachusetts is able to lead the way."

''The players know what the positions are that I favor," Kennedy said. ''I've never been one for individual mandates in the past, but I do think that the way that this has been proposed, in that everybody will do their part, that's a compromise. . . . I can buy into that."

In addition to Kennedy's historical bona fides on the issue, the senior senator has a direct role in the Bay State's effort to expand coverage because along with Governor Mitt Romney, he has been negotiating with federal officials about an annual Medicaid payment to the state of about $585 million. To continue to receive the money, Kennedy and Romney promised federal officials the state would pass a major expansion of healthcare coverage.

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Romney have healthcare plans that they say would cover nearly all of the state's roughly 500,000 uninsured. The plan passed by the Senate aims to cover about half of them.

DiMasi has suggested that Senate President Robert E. Travaglini's plan would not go far enough to satisfy the federal government. In an interview last week, DiMasi said he is convinced that Kennedy favors his more ambitious approach.

''I think he really wants to see us do something dramatic and bold so we can insure as many people as possible in the next three years and comply with the waiver. He thinks Massachusetts can be a leader in this area, and he's very excited about it," DiMasi said. ''I hope he will be a good ally for my proposal in negotiations with the Senate. I hope he can prevail upon the Senate side to see that we need a bold step right now as opposed to taking smaller steps toward that goal."

DiMasi said Kennedy staffers offered guidance to Representative Patricia A. Walrath, the Stow Democrat who is the House chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, and her aides as they crafted the House proposal, and that Kennedy had called him ''on a number of occasions" to discuss the issue.

In October, Kennedy accepted DiMasi's invitation to speak at a Democratic Party fund-raiser, where he urged state legislators to push forward on expanding healthcare coverage. Kennedy also said he has spoken to business leaders, presumably in favor of a proposed payroll tax on employers that do not cover their workers, but he would not disclose their names.

Timothy Murphy, Romney's secretary of Health and Human Services and the architect of the Republican governor's healthcare plan, said Kennedy had not helped shape it. But he praised the senator for being ''very constructive and helpful, particularly with regard to the Medicaid waiver." Travaglini declined to discuss Kennedy's role, saying only that the two speak regularly on a variety of issues.

Healthcare seems to be the one issue guaranteed to pull Kennedy into state politics.

Former House speaker Charles Flaherty recalled that in 1995, Kennedy came to the State House to testify before a legislative committee when a plan to expand healthcare coverage appeared to be in jeopardy. Flaherty said such a step was highly unusual for a US senator -- especially one who had just won reelection.

''I can remember being amazed at his in-depth knowledge of the whole healthcare subject matter," Flaherty said.

John McDonough, a former state legislator who now leads Health Care for All, an advocacy group that backs the DiMasi plan, said ''there is no one in the Commonwealth who is more interested in covering everyone than Senator Kennedy."

''He's numero uno. I defer to Senator Kennedy on all matters related to healthcare, even in Massachusetts," McDonough said. ''Everybody has to take his perspective into account."

Kennedy said his interest in healthcare is rooted in his own experience.

''When my son Teddy was young, he was diagnosed with cancer, and I will never forget sitting in the waiting room with other parents and hearing how they couldn't afford the treatments that could save their children's lives," he said. ''It broke my heart. No sick child should be denied treatment and no parent should have to experience such helplessness."

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.