Obama's Health-Care Flier

Bill Clinton's own Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, wrote, "I've compared the two plans in detail...But in my view Obama's would insure more people, not fewer, than HRC's." - Robert Reich, December 3, 2007

The Obama Health Care Plan: Offers health care coverage for all Americans similar to that of members of Congress, and subsidies to help those who cannot afford it.
Reduces insurance costs more than Hillary's plan, including capping insurance company profits in places where they have taken advantage of people.
Saves the typical family up to $2,500 per year.
Read the entire plan at BarackObama.com.

Barack Obama. Health care we can afford. Change we can believe in.

The mailer focuses on the primary difference between the two candidates' proposals: whether they would require everyone to obtain coverage. Clinton's plan would require all Americans to get insurance, though she hasn't said what will happen if they don't. Obama's plan would require insurance for all children but not for adults. Both plans would help consumers with the cost of getting coverage – although you wouldn't know it from reading Obama's mailer.

Affordability for All?
The mailer opens with the claim that "Hillary's health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it." Clinton's plan does require everyone to have health insurance, and there will be some kind of penalty for those who don't comply. The mailer is correct on that point. But the Obama mailer leaves out any information on cost-reduction measures and low-income help that Clinton's plan offers, while it touts such measures found in his plan – some of which very closely mirror Clinton's.

For instance, the mailer says Obama's plan will save the average family $2,500 per year. That estimate comes from several Harvard professors who examined the plan at the Obama campaign's request. But Clinton says the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, estimates her plan would do nearly as well, saving about $2,200 per year per family.