One of the reasons that Hillary Clinton is the candidate to elect for the Democrats is her health care plan.

When her husband, Bill Clinton, was elected as President, he tasked her with coming up with a plan for everyone to receive health care that was sponsored by the government. As could be expected, with a Republican congress, this simply wasn’t happening. The plan was squashed, the people who supported it demonized, and the concept was dismissed as unamerican, anti-business, and devastating for the country. Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton would eventually give up on the plan, and it was relegated to the scrap heap.

One of the pillars of her 2007 campaign (or her campaign for 2008; however you look at it) is health care, and making sure everyone gets it, can afford it, and no one is left behind. Here’s the outline of her plan.

1. Offer new coverage choices for the insured and uninsured:

The American Health Choices Plan gives Americans the choice to preserve their existing coverage, while offering new choices to those with insurance, to the 47 million people in the United States without insurance, and the tens of millions more at risk of losing coverage.

* The Same Choice of Health Plan Options that Members of Congress Receive: Americans can keep their existing coverage or access the same menu of quality private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu, established without any new bureaucracy as part of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). In addition to the broad array of private options that Americans can choose from, they will be offered the choice of a public plan option similar to Medicare.

* A Guarantee of Quality Coverage: The new array of choices offered in the Menu will provide benefits at least as good as the typical plan offered to Members of Congress, which includes mental health parity and usually dental coverage.

2. Lower Premiums and Increase Security

Americans who are satisfied with the coverage they have today can keep it, while benefiting from lower premiums and higher quality.

* Reducing Costs: By removing hidden taxes, stressing prevention and a focus on efficiency and modernization, the plan will improve quality and lower costs.

* Strengthening Security: The plan ensures that job loss or family illnesses will never lead to a loss of coverage or exorbitant costs.

* End to Unfair Health Insurance Discrimination: By creating a level-playing field of insurance rules across states and markets, the plan ensures that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums.

3. Promote shared responsibility

Relying on consumers or the government alone to fix the system has unintended consequences, like scaled-back coverage or limited choices. This plan ensures that all who benefit from the system share in the responsibility to fix its shortcomings.

* Insurance and Drug Companies: insurance companies will end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness and ensure high value for every premium dollar; while drug companies will offer fair prices and accurate information.

* Individuals: will be required to get and keep insurance in a system where insurance is affordable and accessible.

* Providers: will work collaboratively with patients and businesses to deliver high-quality, affordable care.

* Employers: will help financing the system; large employers will be expected to provide health insurance or contribute to the cost of coverage: small businesses will receive a tax credit to continue or begin to offer coverage.

* Government: will ensure that health insurance is always affordable and never a crushing burden on any family and will implement reforms to improve quality and lower cost.

4. Ensure affordable health coverage for all.

Senator Clinton’s plan will:

* Provide Tax Relief to Ensure Affordability: Working families will receive a refundable tax credit to help them afford high-quality health coverage.

* Limit Premium Payments to a Percentage of Income: The refundable tax credit will be designed to prevent premiums from exceeding a percentage of family income, while maintaining consumer price consciousness in choosing health plans.

* Create a New Small Business Tax Credit: To make it easier-not harder-for small businesses to create new jobs with health coverage, a new health care tax credit for small businesses will provide an incentive for job-based coverage.

* Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP: The Plan will fix the holes in the safety net to ensure that the most vulnerable populations receive affordable, quality care.

* Launch a Retiree Health Legacy Initiative: A new tax credit for qualifying private and public retiree health plans will offset a significant portion of catastrophic expenditures, so long as savings are dedicated to workers and competitiveness.

5. A fiscally responsible plan that honors our priorities.

* Most Savings Come Through Lowering Spending Due to Quality and Modernization: Over half the savings come from the public savings generated from Senator Clinton’s broader agenda to modernize the heath systems and reduce wasteful health spending.

* A Net Tax Cut for American Taxpayers: The plan offers tens of millions of Americans a new tax credit to make premiums affordable-which more than offsets the increased revenues from the Plan’s provisions to limit the employer tax exclusion for health care and discontinue portions of the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000. Thus, the plan provides a net tax cut for American taxpayers.

* Making the Employer Tax Exclusion for Health Care Fairer: The plan protects the current exclusion from taxes of employer-provided health premiums, but limits the exclusion for the high-end portion of very generous plans for those making over $250,000.

In a nutshell, I believe she has a better chance of getting it done. She has a plan, which Barack Obama does, but the difference between her and Obama is that she’s actually tried to do this once before, and while she didn’t succeed, I’m sure she learned from it.

The insurance companies and the Republican Party will most likely launch a massive offensive against any nationalized health plan, and in this case, experience trumps vision. Obama has shown a tendency to lose his composure whenever questions get to be something more than he can answer with a canned speech.

While I’m not 100% sure either of the two candidates can actually make any real progress, I have much more faith that something can get resolved when an experienced leader who has learned how to deal with the knocks, bumps, bruises, and personal attacks is at the helm. If she only makes progress and gets the ball rolling, I’d consider it a success.

In the end, when it comes to health care and butting heads with insurance companies who have been profiteering by denying people health care they’ve paid for, I’d put my faith in Hillary any day over Obama, and if health care matters to you, I heartily believe you should do the same.