Clinton Says Health Care Plan Effective, Not Government-Run

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Clinton declared Thursday her health-care plan would provide quality health care to all Americans without being run by the government.

The Democratic front-runner in national presidential polls, Clinton said she believes her new health proposals could be adopted because there is greater agreement among the general public, workers and business executives that the system needs reforming.

Clinton's plan would require everyone to carry health insurance one of three ways:

— People who are insured could keep their current coverage.

— They could choose from an array of private insurance plans similar to those offered to federal employees.

— They could enroll in a government-sponsored health program similar to Medicare.

Clinton said her current plan would probably cost $110 billion, which would be paid for by allowing tax cuts to wealthy Americans to expire and by improving the health-care system to attain greater savings.

The New York senator brushed aside criticisms leveled by Republicans and conservatives that her plan was tantamount to socialized medicine or a back-door path to a single-payer federal health care system.

Clinton said she was proposing a Medicare-for-all option because "a lot of Americans want it."

"It will not create a new bureaucracy, it will not create the kind of government-run system unless you think Medicare is government-run," she said, noting that under Medicare people have a choice of private doctors and hospitals.

Clinton is the second presidential candidate to participate in the hour-long forum jointly organized by the nonprofit health advocacy group Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals

As the candidate most closely associated with health care, Clinton repeatedly referred to the disastrous health reform effort she spearheaded for her husband's administration in 1993 and 1994.

She said the plan developed then was too complicated and gave the false impression that it would limit the health care choices of people who were insured.

"I take responsibility for that, because it wasn't either designed or presented in as effective a way as it should have been."

Reforming the nation's health care system will require a "national consensus," she said. "When it comes to health care reform, I believe I have exactly the experience we need to get it done during my first term as president.

"I know how hard it will be, but times have changed. This is a different plan, this is a different time, and to a great extent this is a different country, when it comes to looking at what is happening in health care."

Calling health care her "highest domestic priority," Clinton said, "I have no illusions about how hard it is, but I think our country is ready for this."

She added that, "for me, this is a moral and economic issue."