Leanne Wood welcomed SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to the conference
One Plaid Cymru member told me at the conference in Aberystwyth that while the Conservatives may have already created a narrative of Labour failures in the NHS, it was his party which has come up with the credible alternative plan.
The doorstep message will be dealing with dementia, diagnostics and more doctors, rather than dealing with medium-term major structural change, which is also part of the package.
Or that's what they want it to be to communicate their message effectively.
But nevertheless the plan for major re-organisation will always be there in the background, and Plaid want it to be seen as evidence that they will go further than the Tories by coming up with a credible alternative.
The question will be whether it deals with the here and now of waiting lists for operations like hip and knee replacements, and of course whether it can be funded.
I'm told that answer will be resolved in their alternative budget next year.
Little mileage
Leanne Wood's speech wasn't dominated by health in the way that we were expecting.
Like many of her speeches, the Plaid leader covered an enormous amount of territory, from Tory-led plans to change the constitution via the draft Wales Bill, the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Tryweryn reservoir and a run through of the major areas covered by all of the shadow cabinet team.
There was more of a focus on devolved issues than before, and the foot was taken off the gas on constitutional change.
As one senior party official told me, when you have a Labour first minister sounding like Owain Glyndwr in his objections to the Wales Bill there's not much mileage in it for Plaid.
Carwyn Jones is sounding like Owain Glyndwr, according to a Plaid official
There was an appeal to voters to look again at Plaid.
Behind that is an acknowledgement that for many the perception of Plaid is of a party of Welsh speakers, in certain parts of Wales, which is obviously what Leanne Wood's leadership has tried to address.
The party appears relaxed about the accusation from the Tories that Plaid will, in the end, always prop up Labour.
That said, there's no appetite for a coalition either.
When I asked two Plaid assembly members whether they'd prefer to be in opposition to being part of a coalition, one said yes and the other said almost.
Many struggle to see what the party has to gain from being the smaller partner in a coalition.
The Lib Dems can testify to that.
Vastly different fortunes
Leanne Wood took to the podium after Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had given her message of solidarity and was promptly mobbed as she left the stage.
Her arrival was a double-edged sword.
On one level it was a no-brainer for Plaid to have the woman who has become the symbol of success for a nationalist party addressing members.
The flip side is that it throws into focus the vastly different fortunes of the two parties, and risks overshadowing Leanne Wood.
Whatever the merits, she certainly created the kind of buzz that Plaid will be desperate to generate over the next seven months.
