News

NEW YORK, NY February 01, 2008 —The campaign of Barack Obama has sent out a mailer attacking Hillary Clinton's health care plan.

Clinton supporters are saying the move is reminiscent of the 1990's ad that helped kill the universal health care plan then.

The mailer shows a couple at a kitchen table staring at a pile of bills, under a banner that says "Hillary Clinton health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it."

The couple is nearly identical to "Harry and Louise," the fictional couple that discussed how the 1993 health care plan would deprive people of their choice of doctors.

In a conference call, Hillary Clinton advisors, including Dr. Irwin Relener, a Columbia University Pediatrics Professor, called the ad "right out of the republican playbook."

And they said the mailing was false, because Clinton's plan would PAY for care for any that couldn't afford it. A spokesman for Barack Obama dismissed the comparison to Harry and Louise.

For WNYC, I'M Andrea Bernstein.