WASHINGTON — Senator Clinton is launching the health care platform of her presidential campaign, and the campaign of one of her Democratic rivals, John Edwards, says her proposals have a “familiar ring” to them — Mr. Edwards offered them first.

Mrs. Clinton yesterday announced a seven-point plan to reduce health care costs, in the first of what she says will be a multi-pronged approach to achieving universal coverage for all Americans. Her proposals, offered in a 40-minute policy address at George Washington University, represent an amalgamation of ideas that she and other Democrats have touted over the years.

They include: a nationwide initiative to focus on preventive care; the implementation of “paperless” electronic medical records; reducing the cost of prescription drugs by boosting generics, and pursuing “common sense” medical malpractice reforms.

Mrs. Clinton said her proposals signal an effort to rein in the spiraling cost of health care, which estimates have put at $2 trillion a year. Quoting a “conservative” estimate, she said the seven measures, in total, could save $120 billion annually in national health spending, which would then be reinvested to implement universal health coverage for the 45 million people now uninsured.

“Our health care system is plagued with under-use, overuse and misuse. It is, simply put, broken,” Mrs. Clinton told an auditorium filled with students and professors from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “As president, I will make it my mission to fix it, starting by helping the 250 million people with public or private insurance who face skyrocketing costs, inadequate care, and bureaucratic obstacles to coverage.”

She did not detail her plan for universal coverage yesterday, saying she would do so “in the coming months.”

Health care has emerged as the dominant domestic issue in the Democratic primary campaign, and Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina, raced to the front by announcing a detailed plan for universal coverage in February. He has repeatedly challenged his opponents to do the same, and he acknowledged early on that his proposals would require raising taxes.

“Today’s ideas have a familiar ring,” an Edwards campaign spokesman, Mark Kornblau, said yesterday. “John Edwards proposed specific steps to make health care affordable three months ago and — from preventative care to chronic care to paperless records — Senator Clinton has followed him down that path. We welcome her support and eagerly await her plan for universal coverage.”

Mr. Edwards trails Mrs. Clinton and Senator Obama of Illinois in national polls, but he is leading in Iowa, site of the first caucus in January. Mr. Obama is expected to detail his health care plan in a speech Tuesday in Iowa. His campaign declined comment on Mrs. Clinton’s proposals.

The Republican candidates have not offered specific health care plan, but some of them have criticized Democratic efforts to enact universal coverage. Mayor Giuliani has said it would lead to “socialized medicine,” while Senator McCain of Arizona has said insurance coverage could be expanded without “going to the so-called ‘Hillarycare.'” As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney signed enacted a law that requires that every citizen have insurance; it has drawn criticism from some conservatives for expanding the role of government.

Mrs. Clinton’s speech yesterday was laden with statistics, and she acknowledged with a smile that the topic was perhaps “overly wonky.”

Some of her proposals, like a new focus on disease prevention and a national transition to electronic medical records, are far from controversial and have been embraced by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Some health care analysts, however, question whether the measures will save as much money as their advocates contend. A health policy scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Joseph Antos, said many of Mrs. Clinton’s estimates were “more than overly optimistic.”

He also said her plan would not actually be “saving” money, if those funds were only going to be reinvested in new programs. “She wants the money to stay right where it is — in health care,” Mr. Antos said.

Other proposals that Mrs. Clinton advanced are likely to face resistance. She pledged to crack down on what she said was “cherry-picking” by insurance companies with restrictive policies. She also vowed to “break the monopoly” that she said biotech pharmaceutical companies have on prescription drugs by removing market barriers to generics.

“What she seems to have forgotten in this rhetorical flourish is that the U.S. government created this monopoly through patent rights to encourage innovation,” Mr. Antos said, referring to Mrs. Clinton’s criticism of the pharmaceutical industry.

The senator’s plan garnered more support, but also skepticism, among the medical students who watched her speech. ‘She brought up many good ideas,” a third-year GW student, Eugene Simopoulos, said. “I wonder about the partisan nature of Congress, and whether any of those ideas can be acted on.”

Mrs. Clinton, who failed in her effort to enact universal health care, acknowledged the tough road ahead. “The key,” she said, “is to develop the political will to make it happen through a coalition of those who are most directly affected.”