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Elizabeth Edwards is stepping up criticism of Sen. Hillary Clinton's support for universal health care.

Edwards, the wife of presidential candidate John, claims Hillary and her husband Bill abandoned their effort for a universal health care plan in the 1990s to concentrate on pushing for ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Rob Christensen reports.

"They lost the fight in 1993, pulled it out because they wanted to use their political capital to get NAFTA passed as opposed to universal health care in '94," she told The New York Daily News.

She said Clinton's health care plan is nearly identical to the one her husband unveiled early this year, with one exception: Clinton would negotiate with the insurance companies.

"We think that's the wrong direction to go," Edwards said of negotiations.

Elizabeth Edwards, who is fighting cancer, has been hammering away at Clinton's health care plan since the New York senator introduced it last week.

Tying health care to NAFTA also has the advantage of helping Edwards with the labor vote which he is avidly courting.

John Edwards is in Chicago this afternoon to address the Change to Win labor federation, which includes such major labor unions as the Teamsters.

Does Richard Moore's health care plan for kids pick an unnecessary fight?

The state treasurer, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, announced a plan Thursday to help insure children whose families are between 200 and 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or from $41,300 to $61,950 for a family of four.

But the N.C. Kids Care program will already help many of those families next year.

Moore's plan addresses many of the same issues as Kids Care, but it provides slightly more help to children at the lower end of that spectrum.

That difference puts Moore's plan squarely at odds with the Bush administration — a fact he has used to his advantage in an online petition, an ad campaign and a YouTube video.

Details after the jump.

Richard Moore's plan to insure children would cost $120 million.

The state treasurer unveiled his plan Thursday to get more uninsured children on the Health Choice and Medicaid health care plans through incentives to hospitals and schools.

According to the Associated Press, the Carolina Cares for Children plan is mostly carrot with little stick. There would be no punishment for failing to include a child's insurance policy number on a state tax form, for example.

Moore also proposed expanding access to the State Children's Health Insurance Program to up to three times the federal poverty level, or $61,950 for a family of four. The limit is currently twice the poverty level.

The expansion is one reason he targeted President Bush in a recent online petition.

Bush has criticized expansion, saying children from higher income families are likely to have access to private insurance, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Richard Moore has released a proposal for universal health coverage for children.

In a speech today to the North Carolina AFL-CIO, the candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination unveiled a plan called Carolina Cares for Children that would cover the 250,000 children in the state without health care.

"Families in North Carolina ought to know that their children can go to the doctor when they need to," he said. "Healthier kids will be healthier adults and that means lower health care costs for everyone."

Under the proposal, the state would use a carrot-and-stick approach to get children on existing Medicaid and Health Choice plans: Offer financial incentives to hospitals, schools and community health centers to enroll children and requiring parents list their children's policy numbers on their state tax return.

The plan would also simplify the enrollment process for children and extend state-provided coverage.

Full health insurance would be available to children in families up to 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, and subsidized coverage to those between 250 and 300 percent.

John Edwards wants to help older Americans.

Edwards this morning released his "Declaration of Independence" for older Americans, promising to protect Social Security and Medicare, make prescription drugs more affordable, protect seniors from predatory lending and offer more choices in long-term care.

Americans are living longer than ever before - but our social policies haven’t changed to reflect this shift. Our housing policies too often force seniors to choose between isolation or institutionalization and our health care system is set up to treat the worst problems instead of promoting health and quality of life. We must fix the broken system in Washington that has not done more to address these issues.

The full text of Edwards's "Declaration of Independence" after the jump.

Beverly Perdue called her "hometown paper" Wednesday.

After the news broke that the lieutenant governor would kick off her campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on Oct. 1, Perdue rang up the New Bern Sun Journal.

She wanted to call "my hometown paper to tell my friends at home how excited I am."

In the brief interview, Perdue said she would focus on improving public schools, community colleges and universities and improve health care.

"A big personal goal is that, at the end of the day, I leave North Carolina better than I found it," she said.

As with other candidates, Perdue left her heart in New Bern.

A native of Virginia, she moved to the coastal city in 1975 and raised her family there. After serving in the legislature for Craven County districts, she was elected lieutenant governor in 2000.

Since 2000, Perdue has mostly lived in a house in Chapel Hill, but she maintains a home in New Bern and is still registered to vote there.

Two quick changes were made to the Goodyear bill in Appropriations.

They adopted an amendment to ensure that companies receiving the incentives give contractors the same health insurance that regular employees are guaranteed under the bill. (The bill requires companies pay at least 50 percent of the premiums for all full-time employees.)

And they adopted an amendment requiring the companies not hire any illegal immigrants.

Some major bills passed on health care this session.

The bills will:

Create a new state medical form for end of life choices, revises health-care power or attorney language.

Require group health insurance plans to cover treatment for mental illness services at the same level that they cover physical illnesses.

Create a program for residents whose long-term illnesses make buying health insurance too expensive or unavailable because no company is willing to sell it to them.

Set up a system of rating adult-care homes, strengthen health-care personnel registry and set up regular meetings of Penalty Review Commission.

Require state and local public agencies to disclose the total compensation paid to top officials, but gives public hospitals the right to deny such information for the rest of their employees. Also bars the public from learning the details of medical practice purchase contracts struck by public hospitals.

The legislature may be close to wrapping up their work on the state budget, but plenty of work remains to be done.

The Associated Press notes that several big issues remain unresolved as August nears.

The Legislature has little to show so far, still facing decisions that include tightening rules on landfills, tinkering with ethics rules passed last year and providing health coverage for more uninsured citizens.

"They wait until the last minute to do their best work," said Ran Coble, executive director of the nonpartisan North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. "What they've got to do is not stringing ribbons on small packages. They've got significant policy decisions to make."

A Senate bill would revise the laws about "living wills."

Despite heightened objections from the right-to-life movement, the bill moved through a House committee today that would revise state laws governing legal documents about end-of-life care and health care powers of attorney, Tommy Goldsmith reports.

The House Health committee sent the bill forward with a positive recommendation after amending it to call for a study of its effects to be presented in 2013 to the legislature and two medical boards.

Proponents said it simplifies and improves on existing language that lets patients choose whether to use all necessary means to prolong life.

But opponents said it would lead to "backdoor euthanasia" and put some doctors out of business if they refuse to go along with its provisions.

More after the jump.