HILLARY CLINTON: Promises to Fight for Uninsured in NY
First Lady Hillary Clinton, who is weighing a Senate bid to replace retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D), told supporters at a Democratic fundraiser in Buffalo, NY, Friday that she would fight for medical coverage for the uninsured, and admitted she and President Clinton "made mistakes" in their push for health care reform in 1993. She said, "I would be the first to admit that we made mistakes along the way, but we did recognize a big problem. It's a problem not only of the growing uninsured, but a problem of the growing underinsured. This health care issue does not go away." Clinton "later told hundreds of Buffalo-area working women that health care reform along with improved access to child care and equal pay considerations were among the key issues facing Americans."
Later that day in New Jersey, Mrs. Clinton was praised by Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ). Torricelli said that in the face of efforts by the tobacco industry and other groups, women, families and working children "need an advocate in the U.S. Senate. That should be Hillary Rodham Clinton. The state of New York has always led the great debates in American history. ... I know somebody who could lead that debate" (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 5/9).