Key healthcare players to do lunch

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Senator Max Baucus said this morning he plans to have lunch with Senator Edward M. Kennedy this week to discuss a major healthcare overhaul, the top priority for both senators, who chair the Finance Committee and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, respectively.

The news is significant because Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer, has mostly been in Florida since Inauguration Day, when he experienced a seizure during a Senate luncheon. He returned to Capitol Hill briefly to cast a key vote on the economic stimulus package.

Baucus, speaking to reporters at a Kaiser Family Foundation breakfast, said he has been speaking frequently with Kennedy about healthcare, which is the subject of a summit President Obama is convening on Thursday. He did not say whether Kennedy would attend the summit, but he said the two are working together closely. They recently co-authored a Wall Street Journal opinion piece about the need for a health overhaul.

Obama, making healthcare a priority, put $634 billion in his 10-year budget plan as a downpayment and on Monday named two key aides to push an overhaul: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary, and former Clinton administration official Nancy DeParle as director of the White House Office of Health Reform.