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OBAMA: CLINTON HEALTH PLAN WAS POISON

Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday he’s found the right prescription for health-care reform – don’t do it the Hillary way.

In a stunning putdown of the front-running Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama vowed to have an “open process” for crafting a universal health-care plan and rapped the former first lady’s failed 1993 effort as a secretive attempt that shut out the American public. “We will convene an open process which the American people will be watching,” Obama said at a coffee sitdown in Iowa.

“What the president can do is shine a spotlight on the process and [involve] the American people and keep the pressure on, and that is something that didn’t happen. In many ways it didn’t happen in ’93.”

Obama was talking about his own plan to revamp the system and provide universal health care when someone mentioned Clinton’s aborted plan.

“It was a closed process and not everybody understood what was taking place, so when the insurance companies and the drug companies started running those ‘Harry and Louise’ ads, nobody really knew what was what,” he said. “That’s why the American people have to be involved.”

Then-President Bill Clinton tapped his wife to head a health-care reform task force, but their suggestions sparked massive opposition – including effective industry ads featuring a fake couple named “Harry and Louise” worrying about a government takeover of their care. Clinton campaign spokesman Blake Zeff said, “It’s unfortunate that Sen. Obama is abandoning the politics of hope for the politics of attack.”

maggie.haberman

@nypost.com