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Sen. Bernie Sanders pilloried Republican efforts to overhaul the health care system and touted his own Medicare for all plan Friday before an effusive California audience that welcomed him on stage with chants of "Run, Bernie, Run!" Sanders' speech to the influential California nurses' union in San Francisco came shortly after Republican Sen. John McCain announced he would vote "no" on the latest GOP effort to roll back President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. Sanders praised McCain for following his conscience, but he said the fight to preserve — and expand — access to health care is far from over. (9/22)

Single-payer health care has long been the goal of progressive Democrats in California. In 2006 and 2008, the Legislature passed bills to create such a system here, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both of them. This time around, the nurses union seems intent on not letting this moment slip away. (Shafer, 9/22)

After the Senate’s Republican majority failed again to repeal the ACA in July, Sanders seemed to think it was time to move on, proposing a single-payer health care system that he had championed during the presidential primaries. But on Monday, Sanders will be back defending the ACA — this time in a live CNN debate against South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, the architects of the latest version of a Republican health care bill. (Jacobs, 9/22)

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom challenged California’s Democratic-run Legislature to pass sweeping universal, government-run health care next year, pledging that if the bill stalls again, he will make it a priority regardless of what happens in Washington. (Cadelago and Hart, 9/22)

“It’s time to move 562 along,” he said to cheers and a standing ovation at the California Nurses Association conference in San Francisco. “It’s time to do that now.” While he didn’t explicitly endorse the bill in its current form, Newsom articulated his strongest support for it so far and vowed a “firm and absolute commitment” to pass universal health care if he’s elected governor next year. “No one is saying it’s perfect or complete, but that’s not the point. That’s what the legislative process is all about,” he said. (Tolan, 9/22)