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Wherever he takes his campaign for governor, Abdul El-Sayed is followed by activists handing out information about “Medicare for all.” When he grabs the microphone, El-Sayed makes a promise: He’ll bring universal health care to Michigan. “Why can the CEOs of big insurance corporations take home $13 million a year when 600,000 Michiganders still don’t have access to health care?” asked El-Sayed, who is a doctor, at a campaign stop last week in one of the state’s poorest cities. “When are we going to have leadership that stands up for statewide Medicare for all?” (Weigel, 8/5)

Two years ago, 79 percent of Colorado voters rejected a ballot initiative to create a single-payer health system. Today, the idea — rechristened "Medicare for all" — has become a raison d’etre for Democratic candidates such as five-term Rep. Jared Polis, who recently beat back a crowded gubernatorial primary field in the purple state to take on Republican nominee Walker Stapleton. (Haberkorn, 8/3)

When the chips are down, you can always count on either political party to run Medicare attack ads. Polls indicate a neck-and-neck race in Ohio’s special election on Aug. 7 pitting Danny O’Connor, a Democrat, against Republican Troy Balderson to fill the state’s vacant seat in the 12th Congressional District. O’Connor has made headway by charging that Balderson’s support of President Trump’s debt-financed tax cut will lead to reductions in Social Security and Medicare spending, such as by raising the retirement age. In one ad, O’Connor says he stands “against any cuts to Social Security and Medicare” — potentially an unrealistic pledge, given the burdens placed on old-age programs by the retirement of the baby-boom generation. (Kessler, 8/4)