�Թϲ�����

If tonight’s Democratic debate is anything like the earlier ones, it will feature an extended back-and-forth about whether to eliminate private health insurance, and then move on from health care. But there’s a whole lot more that’s also worth asking about. (Baker, 10/15)

A close viewer of the Democratic primary debates so far this year might come away with an informed understanding of the presidential candidates’ views on certain policy areas, such as immigration and health care. ... Everyone in the 2020 Democratic field has taken sides on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All plan. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has said she’s “with Bernie” on expanding government-run health insurance, while former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg have argued in favor of letting Americans keep their private insurance plans. Pete Buttigieg: “I propose Medicare for all who want it. We take a version of Medicare, we make it available for the American people, and if we are right, as progressives, that that public alternative is better, then the American people will figure that out for themselves. I trust the American people to make the right choice for them. Why don’t you?” (Secada and Stephenson, 10/15)

Addressing the health care system -- perhaps the most important issue for progressive voters -- could offer an opening for Sanders, who is keen to reestablish himself as the dominant liberal in the race. He hinted at a more aggressive approach toward Warren in an interview with ABC News' "This Week on Sunday." "There are differences between Elizabeth and myself," he said. (Collinson, 10/14)

Kaiser Health News: Think ‘Medicare For All’ Is The Only Democratic Health Plan? Think Again

If you tuned in for the first five nights of the Democratic presidential debates, you might think “Medicare for All” and providing universal care are the only health care ideas Democrats have. With four months to go before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, proposals on issues like the opioid epidemic have attracted less attention. That is because big-ticket policy ideas ― like enrolling all U.S. residents into a Medicare-style program and eliminating private insurance ― can help candidates stand out in the eyes of voters during a primary, said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program. (Huetteman, 10/15)

Progressives are warning South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg not to attack Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Ohio. Buttigieg, who has emerged as a center-left contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has drawn the ire of progressives in recent days for remarks viewed as swipes against more liberal contenders like Warren and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). (Easley, 10/14)

Democratic presidential candidates are unified in their goal of defeating President Donald Trump in 2020. But they differ on what they’d do if they reach the White House. Some are seeking to restore the country to where it was when President Barack Obama left office and build on his legacy, while others are proposing policies – the Green New Deal and "Medicare for All" chief among them – that would move the country in a new direction. (10/14)

As hundreds of people gathered for a recent Elizabeth Warren rally in Rock Hill, S.C., the heat built so much that one woman in the crowd passed out before the event started. The 90-degree day did not appear to slow Warren: She bounded up the steps to the stage and gave a kinetic, full-body wave to the crowd. Without saying a word, the 70-year-old presidential candidate sent a message: Her physical stamina belies her age. (Hook, 10/14)

Seven years before Elizabeth Warren said “I’m with Bernie on Medicare for All," she was campaigning for the Senate and didn’t want to talk about single-payer health care. Running a tough race against Republican incumbent Scott Brown, the first-time candidate repeatedly distanced herself from the idea. In one interview, she was grilled by New England Cable News host Jim Braude: He wanted to know if she’d support single-payer if she were “the tsarina” — in other words, if politics weren’t an obstacle. (Otterbein, 10/14)

Support is dropping for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) "Medicare for All" health care plan, according to a poll released Tuesday. The Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed in October favored Medicare for All, a proposal in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, compared to the 53 percent who said they supported it last month.  (Hellmann, 10/15)

Tom Sullivan, a Colorado state lawmaker whose son, Alex, was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, met Beto O’Rourke one cloudless morning in September and, inside a glass-and-brick office building in downtown Denver, introduced him to several other people whose friends or relatives had been killed in mass shootings. They were seated at a table in a third-floor conference room of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, beside a largely untouched basket of bagels and a box of Starbucks coffee. Jane Dougherty, whose sister Mary Sherlach was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, brought up the moment, at a presidential debate in Houston the previous week, when O’Rourke had said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” (Siders, 10/15)