By BETH FOUHY, AP Posted: 2007-09-17 17:12:10 DES MOINES, Iowa (Sept. 17) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday offered a sweeping health care reform plan to ensure coverage for all Americans with federal assistance to help defray the cost. Thirteen years after her first effort was abandoned - but saying she still bore the scars from that failure, Clinton described her new plan as necessary to address the crisis of some 47 million uninsured. "I believe everyone - every man, woman and child - should have quality, affordable health care in America," the New York senator told an audience in Iowa. She vowed to accomplish the goal in her first term. Her original plan was an unprecedented initiative for a first lady. This time, she is offering a $110 billion a year program as a candidate for the presidency, in the leadoff state that is her toughest battleground. The health care plan came late in her primary campaign, after several rivals had already described their visions. "Perhaps more than anybody else I know just how hard this fight will be," Clinton said. As Hillary introduces her national health care plan today, I see that the media (for the most part) is falling all over itself in praise for Hillary - The Health Care Master. Not on the merits of the plan, you see, but on the fact that she has paid her dues.
