New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health plan would require everyone to have health insurance and would provide government assistance to people who can't afford it. Obama, an Illinois senator, has proposed government subsidies to help people buy insurance, but doesn't mandate that they purchase it. Her campaign says Obama's plan would leave up to 15 million people without insurance.
"Her opponent excites more Americans ... but would in fact deny us universal health care coverage for the first time," the former president told about 200 people in a gymnasium of a Texarkana community center. "She represents the solution business."
Responding to the criticism, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said: "Now that Senator Clinton's campaign is floundering, the old Bill Clinton has returned with yet another false accusation about Barack Obama of the kind that failed his wife's campaign in South Carolina. Senator Ted Kennedy, who has made health care a cause of his career, said that he wouldn't have endorsed Barack Obama unless he was 'absolutely convinced' he would deliver universal health care as president. ..."
The former president also touched on the war in Iraq, saying indecision by the Iraqi government forces the U.S. to keep its combat troops there.
"If they think we are going to stay there forever and a day, they have no incentive to fix them," Clinton said. "If we stay there, we are not doing them any favors."
The event marked Clinton's second campaign stop in a month to this city straddling the state line between Arkansas and Texas. The former president visited the Arkansas side of the city Feb. 1, just before that state - where he was governor for 16 years - voted in the Super Tuesday primaries.
Senator Clinton is looking for big wins in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio on March 4 to help close the gap with Obama. As of Thursday, an Associated Press count showed Obama maintained a slender lead with 1,276 delegates compared to Clinton's 1,220.
"If she wins in Texas and Ohio, she will win the nomination," Bill Clinton said.
