Obama camps tries to turn issue of health care into a Character issue for Hillary!

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http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-health-and-money/2008/2/4/on-healthcare-primary-opponents-differ-less-than-parties.html

On Healthcare, Primary Opponents Differ Less Than Parties Do
February 04, 2008 04:16 PM ET | Michelle Andrews | Permanent Link

Whether and how the next president will find a way to cover the 47 million people who lack health insurance will be on many voters' minds as they head to the polls on Tuesday. If this is your top-priority issue, you could drive yourself crazy trying to pick apart the differences between the Clinton and Obama plans. Ditto the offerings on the Republican side. That's because they're much more alike, within each party, than they are different. But there are significant differences between Democrats and Republicans in how their respective candidates would address the problem, reflecting the two parties' very different political philosophies. Focus on those instead, and your choice is much clearer. Then pick the candidate in that party that you like best.

On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to get everyone covered by expanding public programs and private insurance options and subsidizing the cost for people who can't afford it. The main difference between their plans is that Clinton would require everyone to have health insurance, while Obama would mandate coverage only for children.

Much has been made in recent days about Clinton's refusal to spell out publicly what she would do to enforce a mandate if people didn't buy coverage as required. Would she garnish their wages? Impose fines? Enroll them automatically? The Obama campaign has tried to turn her reluctance to be specific into a character issue: "America needs a leader they can trust, not someone who will avoid hard questions," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton on Sunday, according to the New York Times.