Hillary Clinton announced a new plan for universal healthcare in America yesterday, 13 years to the month since the collapse of a previous effort almost wrecked her husband’s presidency.

She claimed to have learnt from her mistakes in the 1990s when the then First Lady was handed an unprecedented frontline role in Bill Clinton’s White House as head of the Administration’s health taskforce.

The resulting 1,342-page proposal crashed in Congress, where it was seen as a symbol of “big Government”. Within two months of it being declared dead, the Republicans won control over both the Senate and, for the first time in 40 years, the House of Representatives. But Mrs Clinton, who leads the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, is seeking to turn this epic failure into a strength with a campaign in which she has repeatedly emphasised her experience in government.

Speaking yesterday in Iowa, she said: “I believe everyone – every man, woman and child – should have quality, affordable healthcare in America. I intend to be the President that accom-plishes that goal for our country.”

Although the US spends more on healthcare than other Western countries, 47 million Americans – one sixth of the population – are not covered by private insurance schemes or government-funded schemes.

Mrs Clinton’s plan, which would cost about $110 billion (£55 billion) a year, is similar to those proposed by Democratic rivals John Edwards and Barack Obama which build on existing private health schemes.

She would insist that everyone is covered, in the same way that “drivers in most states are required to have car insurance”.

Businesses would be told to offer insurance to their workers or contribute to a pool that would help to pay for those without it. There would be tax breaks for small employers unable to meet the cost and a choice of expanded government programmes available for those still left without coverage. Insurance companies would be barred from “cherry-picking” healthy people, refusing to cover the sick, and from charging more to people with preexisting conditions.

The assault against her first efforts at legislation in the 1990s was led by the insurance industry, which poured millions of dollars into a famous TV advertising campaign featuring a middle-class couple called Harry and Louise. “This plan forces us to buy our insurance through new mandatory government health alliances,” complained Louise. “Run by tens of thousands of bureaucrats,” said Harry. “Having choices we don’t like is no choice at all,” replied Louise. “They choose, we lose,” they said.

Mrs Clinton emphasised that she was not advocating “government-run healthcare”. Nor would the better-off – who currently enjoy the best healthcare in the world – be forced to change. “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it,” she said.

But Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, said: “Hillary care continues to be bad medicine.” He suggested that the proposal was reminiscent of socialist proposals alien to America, saying: “She takes her inspiration from European bureaucracies.” Democratic opponents, including Mr Obama, have also been taking swipes at her past failure, saying: “The real key to passing any healthcare reform is the ability to bring people together in an open, transparent process that builds a broad consensus for change.”

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