Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is once again focusing on health care for uninsured Americans. She made her first attempt in the 1990s when her husband Pres. Bill Clinton put her in charge of a plan to create a national health insurance program. Despite being unsuccessful then, the effort gave her credibility as a politician, which helped when she ran for the U.S. Senate.

Now she is trying again. On Sunday Clinton, D-NY, announced she and Rep. John Dingell, D-Michigan, will introduce legislation "in the coming weeks" to expand health care insurance to more people.

That legislation would renew and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program to more people, allowing families earning nearly five times the federal poverty level to participate.

"It expands the program to millions of children whose families today cannot afford care," she said at a health care center in New York City, CNN reported.

The legislation would also allow all employers and all families, regardless of income, to buy into the S-CHIP program, Clinton said, calling it "another step" toward all Americans being able to have "affordable health care."

Although Clinton is optimistic about her legislation she noted that as president she could do more.

"I'm looking forward to being in a better position than ever to help the nation," she told the audience, the National Post reported.

Health insurance is expected to be an issue during the presidential and other 2008 races because of the current crisis that sees more than 46 million Americans without insurance.

Even Pres. George W. Bush has finally acknowledging that something needs to be done about health care insurance. In his radio address on Saturday Bush said he would introduce his plan for health care insurance during his State of the Union address.

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Linda Young - All Headline News Staff Writer

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