Hillary's health plan to be revealed today

Hillary Clinton will be unveiling details of her health care proposal later today. Briefly, the plan would require everyone to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage.

The centerpiece of Clinton's plan is the so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.

Edwards and Obama may be worried about reaction to her plan if this poll holds up after the public learns about the details.

Clinton's previous effort gives her a voice of authority on health-care coverage now, with 65 percent of Americans in a July Gallup poll expressing ``a great deal'' or ``a fair amount'' of confidence in her on the issue. That's more than any other White House contender.

According to Ezra Klein, Edwards is already on the offensive:

Which may help explain why the Edwards campaign, concerned that they could lose their advantage on the issue, has decided to do the Clinton camp one better and has scheduled a speech outlining their strategy -- as distinct from their policy plan -- for passing health care reform. In the speech, Edwards will directly attack Clinton's performance in 1994, her willingness to take donations from insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists, and announce that on his first day in office, he'll submit a bill terminating the health coverage of the president, the Congress, and all political appointees if Congress fails to pass health reform by July 20th, 2009. In other words, he'll begin raising the stakes on the candidates' political commitments to passing health reform, rather than their policy documents. Should be interesting... [emphasis mine]

Interesting is right. Edwards is delivering his speech as I type and he's getting a good reaction from the crowd.

And his plan to end coverage for Congress if they don't pass health care just got a huge, 20- or 30-second ovation. "It's time for our government, for our Congress, to feel the pressure...to understand that health care isn't a political, but a moral, issue."

We'll have to wait to see the details from Clinton's health plan, but one thing is certain, voters want health care fixed, which may account for the "take no prisoners" attitude .