GOP Blocking Health Reform, First Lady Says

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday accused Republican leaders of trying to kill health care reform to keep her husband from delivering on a campaign promise, and predicted they would pay at the polls.

In an interview with Mutual/NBC Radio News, the First Lady also said prospects for passage of a health care reform bill were “very good” despite efforts to block it.

“I believe that unfortunately the Republicans don’t want to pass health care reform because they don’t want this President to fulfill yet another of his promises,” she said.

Referring to the November midterm elections, when 34 of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for grabs, she said: “This is going to be a very interesting fall.”

She predicted voters will punish Republican candidates “if after all this effort, after more than 60 years of trying, we fail to provide real health care reform because one party wants partisan political advantage.”

The First Lady said compromises proposed by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) both meet the President’s overall goals.

The President’s bottom line, she said, is universal coverage, a ban on abusive insurance practices, choice of doctors and “paying for universal coverage with shared responsibility”--a euphemism for having employers pay part of the tab.