In an essay just published in Newsweek, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., describes the personal and political history behind his 40-year fight for universal health care for Americans.

Kennedy, a sponsor of reform legislation in the Senate, co-wrote the article with Robert Shrum, his friend and speechwriter.

"This is the cause of my life," says Kennedy, who is under treatment for a malignant brain tumor. "For four decades I have carried this cause — from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me — and more urgency — than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years."

Kennedy relates the anguish of being able to afford an experimental treatment for bone cancer for his 12-year-old son, Teddy, in 1973, while other "heartbroken" parents of children with the same disease could not afford the treatment after a clinical trial ended.

"That experience with Teddy made it clear to me, as never before, that health care must be affordable and available for every mother or father who hears a sick child cry in the night and worries about the deductibles and copays if they go to the doctor," he writes.

Kennedy also looks back at the political compromises he has made under different administrations.

"When I first introduced the bill in 1970, I didn't expect an easy victory (although I never suspected that it would take this long). I eventually came to believe that we'd have to give up on the ideal of a government-run, single-payer system if we wanted to get universal care. Some of my allies called me a sellout because I was willing to compromise. Even so, we almost had a plan that President Richard Nixon was willing to sign in 1974 — but that chance was lost as the Watergate storm swept Washington and the country, and swept Nixon out of the White House."