Elizabeth Edwards backs Clinton on Health Care

Martina Stewart, an Associate Producer at CNN, reports that Elizabeth Edwards has now publicly endorsed the health plan of presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton. Details appear in Stewart's article on CNN's Political Ticker:

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is picking sides in the Democratic nomination race – at least with respect to health care. In an interview that aired Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” she threw her support behind Sen. Hillary Clinton’s health care plan.

“In order to ensure that we have universal coverage, we need to say everybody has to join,” Edwards told ABC’s Robin Roberts. “So, for that reason, the mandates that Sen. Clinton is talking about, I think are going to be more successful in achieving the goal,” she added.

Both health care plans have the same goals, said Edwards, but “I just have more confidence in Sen. Clinton’s policies than Sen. Obama’s on this particular issue.”

This is not the first time that Edwards, a cancer survivor, has had good things to say about Clinton's approach to health care. Last September she even noted its similarities to the one her husband, John Edwards, espoused during his bid for the Democratic nomination. As noted on this blog, she has also been quite critical of Sen. John McCain's plan, stating that is gives too much leeway for insurance providers to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

This public statement is one that will certainly have an impact on the battle between Clinton and Obama for the Democratic nomination. Even though neither John nor Elizabeth Edwards have made a formal endorsement of either candidate, endorsing Clinton's health care plan carries a lot of weight due to the high profile of the issue in the current race for the Oval Office.

SOURCE: "Elizabeth Edwards backs Clinton's health care plan over Obama's" 04/09/08
photo courtesy of John Edwards 2008, used according to its Creative Commons license