Universal coverage key part of Dems' platform

PITTSBURGH — Democrats shaped a set of principles Saturday that commits the party to guaranteed health care for all and edges the party closer to the position of Barack Obama's defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The party's platform committee approved a document that will go to the Democratic convention in Denver for adoption.

There was little dissent, and a compromise on health policy took one flash point off the table.

Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has stopped short of proposing to mandate health coverage for all, making it mandatory only for children. Clinton would have required everyone to get insurance. Obama aims to achieve something close to universal coverage by making insurance more affordable and helping struggling families pay for it.

Advisers to Obama and Clinton told the party's platform meeting they were happy with the compromise, adopted without opposition or without explanation as to how health care would be guaranteed.

In return for the guarantee, activists dropped a tougher platform amendment seeking a government-run, single-payer system and another amendment explicitly holding out Clinton's plan as the one to follow.

The party now declares itself "united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care."

For the 186-member platform committee, one imperative Saturday was to satisfy Clinton loyalists sore from the often acrimonious primary fight while keeping policy firmly in sync with Obama's campaign.

Party platforms are a statement of principles that are not binding on the candidates or the next president.

On Iraq, the platform states that Democrats "expect to complete redeployment within 16 months," reflecting Obama's time frame but not the tone of certainty he brought to it when he was running in the primaries.

An extensive section on women's rights is included, and the votes Clinton received in the primaries are described as "18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling."

The platform reasserts Obama's promise of energy rebates to struggling families, pension subsidies, a crackdown on predatory lenders, higher taxes for families earning more than $250,000, tax breaks for others, billions for economic stimulus and "direct high-level diplomacy, without preconditions," in the case of Iran.

On trade, it promises a multilateral approach to improving the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), without saying specifically what those changes should be.

Democrats typically have a strong plank in favor of abortion rights; this year's version is stronger than usual. "The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right," it says.

Gone is the phrase from the past that abortions should be safe, legal and "rare."

The party also pledges to ensure access to adoption programs, prenatal and postnatal care and income support programs for expectant mothers who need the help.

Among the other platform pledges, the party:

• Promises "tough, practical, and humane immigration reform in the first year of the next administration."

• Favors restoration of the ban on assault-type weapons and other "reasonable regulation" that recognizes the constitutional right to own and use firearms.

• Promises to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center.