Once again, Barack Obama is stretching the truth -- to phrase it diplomatically -- in his desperate attempts to attack Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton's health care plan has been clear all along: as President, Hillary will enact a health care plan that covers every single American. Every. One.
"There is a fundamental difference between Senators Obama and Clinton on health care. Senator Clinton’s health care plan covers every single American. Senator Obama’s does not. Any health care plan that leaves 15 million Americans uninsured cannot be considered universal. And that is a very big difference." – Clinton Campaign Spokesman Mo Elleithee
This week, at a campaign event in Clarion, IA, Sen. Obama had the audacity to claim there were no significant differences between his health care plan and Hillary's health care plan:
Here is the one thing I want to say about health care. I’ll be honest with you – my plan, John Edwards’ plan, Hillary Clinton’s plan – they are all basically the same plan. There really isn’t that much difference between them.
Sen. Obama’s plan is not universal. Even he has admitted that:
During his speech, Sen. Obama said, "I will sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of my first term in office." But after his speech today, Obama told me his plan really isn't "universal." He said it's "virtually universal." His plan doesn't mandate coverage, except for children.
CBS News has researched the dispute and concluded firmly that Sen. Obama's plan would leave about 15 million people uninsured.
Experts agree, including Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic:
The best studies out there—by Urban Institute researchers, the RAND Corporation, and MIT economist Jonathan Gruber--suggest that, without a mandate, improving affordability will cover roughly one-third of the people who don't have coverage. Mandating that kids (but not adults) have coverage bumps that up to about a half. Obama's advisers think that, by really loading up on the subsidies—and making enrollment a lot easier by, for example, having an automatic enrollment with voluntary opt-out at your place of work--they can goose that up to two-thirds. But that's getting optimistic—and, even then, you still have around 15 million people who are uninsured.
SOURCES:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
http://facts.hillaryhub.com/