DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Hillary Rodham Clinton often reminds voters that she still bears the scars from the 1990s health care fight that as first lady she famously waged and lost.

Those wounds were clearly factors as Clinton, now the front-runner for her party’s presidential nomination, issued a call for universal health care on Monday and defiantly told an Iowa audience – and the political establishment – that her plan is not government-run.

Gone was the 1,300-page proposal. In its place was a straightforward message.

“I know my Republican opponents will try to equate health care for all Americans with government-run health care,” Clinton said.

“Don’t let them fool us again. This is not government-run.”

The New York senator said her plan would require every American to purchase insurance, either through their jobs or through a program modeled on Medicare or the federal employee health plan. Businesses would be required to offer insurance or contribute to a pool that would expand coverage. Individuals and small businesses would be offered tax credits to make insurance more affordable.

“I believe everyone – every man, woman and child – should have quality, affordable health care in America,” Clinton told an audience at a medical center in Iowa, the early voting state that launches the nomination process.

As the front-runner, Clinton drew swift criticism from Democratic and Republican rivals, including party foes Bill Richardson and John Edwards who argued she was merely following their lead in offering a similar plan.

Clinton framed her quest as a moral imperative in which individuals, businesses, the insurance industry and the federal government each had a role to play. She said her plan would be bipartisan and would only be successful through negotiation – a sharp departure from her earlier effort.

Then, the Clinton health care task force met in secret and tried to drive legislation through Congress. Now, Clinton, a senator for seven years, spoke of compromise although she vowed to accomplish her goal in her first term if elected.

“She’s running against essentially not just the other candidates but her own plan. She’s trying to convince you that this is a new Clinton plan,” said Robert Blendon, a professor of public health at Harvard Medical School.

To pay for her plan, Clinton said the tax cuts for Americans making $250,000 that were enacted under President Bush would be allowed to expire. She also projected she would identify $56 billion in savings through computerized record keeping, reducing the price of prescription drugs and cutting Medicare overpayments to hospitals and CEOs.

Despite the focus on letting people who are happy with their insurance keep what they have, her plan would raise taxes on some coverage for the wealthy.

The current exclusion from taxes of employer-provided health premiums would be limited for those who make more than $250,000 and have “very generous” plans. For such people, a portion of the premiums paid by the employer could become taxable income for the employee.

Joking that her proposals “won’t make me the insurance industry’s woman of the year,” Clinton said companies would no longer be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or genetic predisposition to certain illnesses.

The centerpiece of Clinton’s latest effort is the so-called “individual mandate,” requiring everyone to have health insurance just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Such a mandate has detractors at both ends of the political spectrum.