Clinton Sees Stars in Alignment for Health Care

ABC News’ Tahman Bradley Reports: It is the issue she has become intimately familiar with. "I have been dealing with health care, it seems like all my life," she said. 

It is the source of self-deprecating humor, "We don’t have enough time to discuss all the mistakes in the (health care reform) process that occurred."

And the issue she just will not give up. "I think we can do it this time," she said. "I actually think that the stars may be more in alignment today than they have been."

Sen. Hillary Clinton D-N.Y., who led a failed effort in the 1990′s to achieve universal health care for every American, talked health care and Social Security to members of the AARP at their national policy council meeting Tuesday in Washington, D.C.  In a 20-minute address, the presidential hopeful said America is spending more than any other nation on health care costs but failing to insure everyone and that "now is the time for a serious conversation about what we do going forward."

Clinton called for better health information technology in the form of electronic medical records.  She said, "We are wasting billions of dollars because we don’t keep track of our health information the way we keep track of financial information, and how we do most of our business in the world today."

She applauded state-led efforts at universal coverage and controlling the rising costs of health care.  "While we don’t have any solution in Washington, we shouldn’t be handicapping the states from proceeding to do what will give us good information about how to make better decisions." 

And Clinton said she will continue to work to pass legislation that ensures that Medicare helps seniors in group homes pay for prescription drugs just as it does for seniors who live in nursing homes. 

On Social Security, Clinton said, "It is our task to be responsible stewards of Social Security," and she accused President Bush of cutting Social Security funding in his proposed year-end budget in favor of private Social Security accounts. "It’s like the bad dream that doesn’t disappear," Clinton said to laughter. "It is under-budgeted in the president’s budget–far below what any independent evaluator says it would cost."