Reich, who served as the Clinton-Gore administration's labor secretary for four years, took issue with Gore's latest television ad, which touts the vice president as "the only Democratic candidate who preserves Medicaid instead of replacing it with a $150 a month voucher."

"It's bad enough to resort to negative advertising, but it's even worse to patently distort a plan that is attempting to achieve just the opposite," Reich said Thursday in a phone interview with New Hampshire reporters during a layover in St. Louis.

Bradley's plan would replace Medicaid, the state-run health insurance program for the poor, with a system that would allow people to enroll in the same health care coverage provided for federal employees. People at or near the poverty line would get subsidies for private insurance or opt into the expanded federal system.

Gore's ad implies the poor would get $150 a month tops in subsidies, but Bradley says $150 is the average subsidy for an individual, and the family average is higher -- $400.

Reich said Bradley's plan would offer more stability for people who currently risk losing their Medicaid benefits if their salaries increase slightly.

"Most poor people or the near-poor are moving into and out of Medicaid eligibility all the time," Reich said. "A comprehensive approach is far, far better."

The ad also calls the subsidies "vouchers," evoking the education vouchers Bradley once supported, but many Democrats dislike.

"To call this a voucher and say people are in danger of losing eligibility turns reality on its head," Reich said.