Clinton gaining an edge on health care issue

By Jason Szep - Analysis

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama often says his rival Hillary Clinton would force people into buying health care "whether they could afford it or not."

But pollsters and health industry experts say a steep U.S. economic slowdown or recession could help Clinton's battle with Obama for the U.S. presidential nomination by playing to one of her perceived strengths: that she would be better than Obama at controlling surging health care costs.

Health care and other economic issues gave Clinton an edge in Ohio's primary on March 4 when the New York senator, who would be America's first female president, beat a surging Obama, the Illinois senator who would the first black president, exit polls showed.

Many of the same forces are at work in the Pennsylvania contest on April 22, the biggest remaining fight in the Democratic race. Her campaign hopes to repeat her success in Ohio, in part by focusing on her $110 billion universal health care plan as the U.S. economy stumbles.

"When voters say they are worried about the economy, health care is what an awful lot of them are really worried about," said Clay Richards, an assistant director at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut.

"They see Clinton as the candidate with far more experience in the field," he said.

'ALMOST PARADOXICAL'

But that experience, he noted, includes Clinton's dramatic failure in 1993 to reform U.S. health care, which many Americans felt overstepped the role of first lady.