Obama joins Democrats backing universal coverage

WASHINGTON – Leading Democratic presidential candidates are showing a passion for ambitious plans to provide health care coverage to all Americans that the party has not shown since the Clinton administration’s health plan turned into a political debacle in 1994.

The Republican takeover of Congress that year was credited in part to political opposition to the Clinton health care plan. Since then, Democrats have concentrated on more modest, incremental efforts to expand health coverage, such as subsidized insurance for low-income children and prescription drug coverage for the elderly.

But this year, the three most prominent Democratic presidential candidates all have declared their intention to move the country toward universal health care coverage

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., committed on Thursday to providing health care coverage for every American within six years.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina declared in announcing his presidential campaign in December that he would back universal health care, even if it required expanding the federal budget deficit.

And Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who as first lady spearheaded the Clinton administration’s ill-fated plan, also has made health care coverage for all a central theme – highlighting her commitment by appearing at a community health care center last weekend, the day after entering the Democratic presidential field.

Several Republican governors also have recently embraced the goal of health care coverage for all.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, now a GOP presidential candidate, signed legislation requiring all state residents to get health insurance by July 1 or face a tax penalty, with the state subsidizing insurance for lower-income residents. California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off his second term this month with a call to assure health care for all state residents.

And President Bush traveled to a Missouri hospital on Thursday to press his case that Congress should sign on to his health-care proposals, including his idea to tax employer-paid health insurance premiums as employee income.

Obama said he would offer a plan for universal health coverage within “several months” and said the goal would be “a top priority” for him.

He otherwise provided few details, though he called for a greater focus on preventive health care to reduce doctor visits and argued that the country could save on administrative costs by requiring greater use of electronic insurance claims.