CINCINNATI—Hillary Clinton slammed rival Barack Obama on Saturday for campaign leaflets on her health-care plan that she called "blatantly false" and accused him of using Republican tactics in their contest for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.
In a bitter exchange, the Obama campaign defended the leaflet as accurate, and decried Clinton's "negative campaign."
"Shame on you, Barack Obama," Clinton said, speaking to reporters after a rally in this state that is key to her struggling campaign.
Brandishing a leaflet, Clinton said the Obama campaign was spreading "false, misleading, discredited information" about her health-care plan.
"Senator Obama knows it is not true that my plan forces people to buy insurance even if they can't afford it," Clinton said. "It is blatantly false and yet he continues to spend millions of dollars perpetuating falsehoods. It is not hopeful. It is destructive, particularly for a Democrat to be discrediting universal health care."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton in a statement responded, "Everything in those mailers is completely accurate, unlike the discredited attacks from Hillary Clinton's negative campaign that have been rejected in South Carolina, Wisconsin, and across America."
Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, would be the first woman U.S. president if she won the general election, and Obama, an Illinois senator, would be the first black U.S. president.
Obama has won 10 consecutive state nominating contests since Feb. 5. The string of victories has put him ahead in the race for delegates to a nominating convention this summer where the party will pick a candidate for the November election.
Following are details of healthcare plans offered by Democratic White House hopefuls:
* New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan, estimated to cost about $110 billion per year, would require all Americans to get health insurance. Under a public-private partnership, they would keep existing coverage or choose from private insurance options members of Congress receive. Individuals may also choose a public plan similar to Medicare. Plan creates new federal subsidies for those who can't afford coverage and imposes new mandates on large employers to provide health insurance or help pay for it. Small business will receive tax breaks to provide health coverage. Plan forces insurance companies to give coverage to everyone, ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. Drug companies would also be required to offer fair prices.
* Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's plan provides health coverage for almost all Americans. Creates national public insurance program to allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health care similar to that available to federal employees. No one will be turned way or charged more due to illness and everyone who needs it will receive a subsidy for their premiums. Requires all employers to contribute toward health coverage for their employees or toward the cost of the public plan. Creates a national health insurance exchange to reform the private insurance market. Mandates that all children have health care coverage.
March 4 Contests
Many analysts say Clinton must win contests in the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas on March 4 to cut Obama's lead and still have a chance at the nomination.
Clinton said the campaign leaflet on health care reminded her of health insurance industry attacks on her plan. She also said another leaflet Obama's campaign issued misrepresented her views on trade agreements such as NAFTA.
"Let's have a real campaign. Enough with the speeches and big rallies and then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove's play book," she said, referring to the Republican political strategist behind George W. Bush's winning presidential campaigns.
Clinton said Obama's proposal to fix problems of health insurance availability would leave 15 million Americans out, while hers would be universal.
"I'm not going to give up on it (universal care) the way Senator Obama has given up on it," she said.
Burton said Clinton had said under her plan "she would consider 'going after the wages' of Americans who don't purchase health insurance, whether they can afford it or not."
He also said, "The facts are that Senator Clinton was a supporter of NAFTA and the China permanent trade treaties until this campaign began."
On comparing Obama's tactics to the Bush campaigns, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "If you want to talk about tactical political maneuvering, it's about one Democrat comparing another Democrat to George Bush. That's the worst kind of tactical political maneuvering."
At the earlier rally Clinton trained her fire on Bush to try to undermine Obama's message of change.
Clinton said Bush, who campaigned on a platform of "compassionate conservatism," also had promised Americans change.
"He promised change, didn't he?" she said of Bush. "The American people got shafted and we're going to have to make up for it."
When the new president starts the job next year, Clinton said there would be a lot of work waiting on the desk in the Oval Office: "Let's imagine a folder ... on the front of that folder it says something like George Bush's mess," she said. "That's going to be a big folder."
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