Seeking SEIU Support, Clinton Unveils Universal Health Care Plan

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was in Iowa Sunday but spent Monday’s early morning hours in Chicago in front of a labor organization, made a quick stop back at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines to unveil the third (and by far the most ambitious) part of her health care plan.  Only hours later, she was scheduled to appear at a meeting of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  The SEIU members at the meeting may decide which Democratic presidential candidate to endorse in the coming days.

In July, Anna Burger, SEIU secretary-treasurer, told CBS News that she did not expect the SEIU to consider endorsing a candidate without a specific plan for universal health care.  “We expect [candidates] to come out with a health care plan by August 1,” Burger said at the time.  The final component of Clinton’s plan came well after that estimated deadline, but, because it was unveiled before the SEIU meeting, it may have come soon enough.

The text of Clinton’s speech contained explicit appeals to unions and, more directly, to SEIU members.  The contrast between Clinton’s speech at Sunday’s Harkin Steak Fry, in which the 30-second labor section of her stump speech did not use the word “union” a single time, and Monday’s health care policy address, was palpable.

Shortly after a nurse at Broadlawns Medical Center introduced Clinton, the senator praised the nurse for being a “proud SEIU” member.  Asking her audience rhetorically why Washington politicians have not arrived at a solution for the health care problems facing the United States, she noted there is a broad consensus that there is a problem, something that “unions” and employers both agree on.  From the abstract to the specific, she mentioned SEIU President Andy Stern by name, noting that both he and Wal-mart executive Lee Scott agree that every American should have health care.  (Whether Scott and Stern would agree on the specifics of her health care plan is less clear.)

Clinton framed her speech in response to the rhetoric of “special interests” that has become common in former Sen. John Edwards’ and Sen. Barack Obama’s stump speeches, but she restricted her criticism to the current Bush administration.  “Special interests have had a field day” at the expense of patients, Clinton said, but her criticism was specific to “the past six and a half years.”  Obama and Edwards have criticized the role special interests have played not only in the Bush administration, but also in former President Clinton’s administration.

In a more direct jab at her opponents, Clinton noted, “In the end, change is just a word unless you have the strength and experience to make it happen.” Later in her speech, she characterized her plan as “sticking to our principles and reaching out to find common ground.”  Edwards and, to perhaps a lesser extent, Obama, have criticized Clinton for being willing to bring insurance companies and other “insiders” to the table.  “They’ll eat all of the food,” Edwards said of this idea at the Steak Fry Sunday.  Perhaps in response, Clinton said in her speech that it “takes a consensus for change” and that “there are many people in the health insurance industry” who wished they were not making a profit by refusing certain claims the way that they do.

Clinton’s plan is more similar to Edwards’ plan than Obama’s.  Most notably, Clinton, like Edwards and unlike Obama, plans to make health coverage mandatory.  “Everyone needs insurance,” Clinton said, comparing health insurance to car insurance, which most states already require for all drivers.

Clearly aware of the potentially harmful political implications of a plan requiring all Americans to have health insurance, Clinton couched her plan in rhetoric that the plan’s opponents might use.  It is “The American Health Choices Plan,” according to the signs and media credentials at the event.  “It’s going to take shared responsibility,” she said in her speech, attempting to deflect criticisms that universal health care plans ignore the need for ‘personal responsibility.’  Although the so-called ‘individual mandate’ would seem to reduce a consumer’s choices when it comes to health insurance, Clinton attempted to portray her plan in the opposite light.

Clinton also chose her words carefully when describing how she would pay for her plan.  She did not say anything that might be twisted to mean that she would raise taxes.  In fact, she described the current system, under which Americans already pay too much to cover the costs of health care for the uninsured, as “a hidden tax” on everyone.  Perhaps counterintuitively, she argued that the current system is an extra tax, while she emphasized the tax credits included in her plan to help ensure that everyone could afford coverage.

That said, her plan would increase government revenue by effectively raising taxes on wealthy Americans.

In perhaps the strangest part of Clinton’s speech, the senator made an argument against allowing insurance companies to screen for pre-existing conditions, noting that with new advances in medical science and genetics, screening could potentially exclude almost everyone for being susceptible to one illness or another (remember the film GATTACA?).  Excluding customers in need of insurance for pre-existing conditions is “legalized discrimination against the sickest of Americans,” Clinton noted.

In the end, Clinton appeared to appropriate more language from her opponents: “We need more than a plan,” she said. “We need a movement.”

Whether her plan will propel her toward the highly coveted SEIU endorsement remains to be seen.  Whomever the union chooses to endorse, Burger’s July interview indicates the decision could come soon: “We then will get to our Impact Conference, which we’ll hold with about 2000 of our most politically active members,” said Burger, describing the meeting being held this week.  “And we will have the candidates speak there. And the next day our executive board will meet. We’ll make a decision then if we’re ready to endorse.”

Stern has implied in interviews and conversations that Edwards was the leading contender for SEIU’s endorsement going into this week’s meeting, but he has noted that neither Clinton nor Obama is out of the running.

Several of Clinton’s opponents released statements  in response to today’s speech, which Lynda Waddington compiled and analyzed here.