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Senator Bernie Sanders stepped to the lectern on Wednesday, red-faced and rumpled as ever, with a placard screaming “Medicare for All,” and likened his quest for a government-run universal health plan to earlier movements for women’s rights, civil rights, workers’ rights and gay rights. “What we are involved in is not just health care legislation,” he declared, flanked by admiring doctors in lab coats, Democratic senators and one of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. “We are involved in a great struggle.” (Stolberg, 4/10)

At an event on Capitol Hill, Sanders unveiled his latest version of a single-payer plan, which would replace the patchwork of public and private insurers with a government-run system that Sanders argues would ultimately save consumers money. Sanders said he is seeking to replace a “dysfunctional” system based on “greed and profiteering” by health insurance companies. “Together we are going to end the international embarrassment of the United States of America, our great country, being the only major nation on earth not to guarantee health care to all as a right,” Sanders said. “This is a struggle for the heart and soul of who we are as American people.” (Wagner and Sullivan, 4/10)

His proposal would replace private health insurance with a government-run plan that covers primary care, hospital stays and prescription drugs for all Americans, dramatically changing America’s $3.5 trillion health-care industry. Sanders, who also sought the Democratic nomination in 2016, has backed the concept for years and offered similar legislation in 2013, when it attracted no co-sponsors. Of 14 Democratic senators who have signed on this time, four are competing with Sanders for the Democratic nod: Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren. Gillibrand is the only fellow candidate who attended the rally. (Litvan and Tozzi, 4/10)

Several independent studies of Medicare for All have estimated that it would dramatically increase government spending on health care, in the range of about $25 trillion to $35 trillion or more over a 10-year period. But a recent estimate from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst suggests that the cost could be much lower. Sanders and his supporters say it’s a matter of principle. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Schor, 4/10)

Sanders acknowledged in a statement Wednesday that the bill does not have enough support to pass even through reconciliation, a budget procedure that allows the Senate to pass legislation with 51 votes. But he said elected officials and candidates "should do what grass-roots Democrats want them to do." He called for a return to the "talking filibuster," and noted that the vice president can overrule the Senate parliamentarian to determine what can be passed through reconciliation. (McIntire and Lesniewski, 4/11)

The bill has 14 Senate co-sponsors in all, two fewer than it had in 2017. Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) had supported the bill two years ago, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) decided not to co-sponsor the bill this year. Shaheen said in a statement she now thinks there are faster ways to get to "Medicare for all" than Sanders’s proposal. "While Republican leaders and President Trump continue their efforts to takeaway health care that millions of Americans depend on, Medicare for All legislation has helped re-ignite an urgently needed debate about reaching universal health care coverage,” she said in a statement. (Hellmann, 4/10)

Kaiser Health News: As Sanders Officially Revives Medicare-For-All, Plan B For Democrats Gains Traction

That tension is pushing a number of candidates toward an emerging option called “Medicare for America.” The bill was introduced last December to little fanfare by two Democrats, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.). It hasn’t been reintroduced in the new Congress. This proposed system would guarantee universal coverage, but leaves job-based insurance available for those who want it. Unlike Medicare-for-all, though, it preserves premiums and deductibles, so beneficiaries would still have to pay some costs out-of-pocket. It allows private insurers to operate Medicare plans as well, a system called Medicare Advantage that covers about a third of the program’s beneficiaries currently, and which would be outlawed under Medicare-for-all. (Luthra, 4/11)

The Medicare for All bill unveiled by Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday would provide universal health care coverage, swallowing both the current public programs like Medicare and Obamacare, as well as private health insurance, into one new unified system. Progressives embrace the plan because the coverage is free, streamlined and fair. They believe it will save money by squeezing out the profit-driven model of care. Opponents counter that one-size-fits-all, government-run health care would balloon the country’s health spending and limit access to care — or both. (Ollstein and Kenen, 4/10)

A President Bernie Sanders isn’t going to let something as trivial as the Senate rules thwart his drive to pass Medicare for All. The Vermont independent, one of the top-tier contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been skeptical of getting rid of the legislative filibuster to pass a sweeping legislative agenda. Instead, Sanders is taking a page from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who wanted to shred Senate rules in order to pass ambitious GOP health care legislation in 2017. (Everett, 4/10)

The White House on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) rollout of an updated version of his "Medicare for all" bill, chiding the 2020 presidential hopeful as health care promises to be a key election issue. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders derided the plan as a "total government takeover of health care that would actually hurt seniors, eliminate private health insurance for 180 million Americans, and cripple our economy and future generations with unprecedented debt." (Samuels, 4/10)

A group of Senate Republicans is reviving legislation aimed at guaranteeing protections for people with pre-existing conditions, as the GOP attempts to blunt the Democrats’ perceived political advantage on health care before the 2020 election. The narrowly tailored proposal, which Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) and 17 other Senate Republicans unveiled Wednesday, would preserve some of the most popular elements of the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration has moved to strike down in court. (Duehren, 4/10)

Senate Republicans, eager to exploit Democrats’ divisions on health care, want to put their legislative rivals on the spot by bringing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill to the floor for a vote. Republicans used a similar tactic last month when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brought the “Green New Deal” plan from freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to the Senate floor for a vote to highlight Democrats’ disunity and portray them as out of step with Americans. But most Democrats voted present, deeming the vote a stunt. (Levine, Cancryn and Ollstein, 4/11)

Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy split on Wednesday over Sen. Bernie Sanders’s long-awaited “Medicare for All” bill. Blumenthal was one of 14 co-sponsors of Sanders’s bill, all Democrats, while Murphy supports other proposals that would overhaul the nation’s health care system – all plans that do not eliminate the role of health insurers. (Radelat, 4/10)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled a new proposal for “Medicare for All” on Wednesday, kicking off debate on a policy that’s galvanized parts of the Democratic base and served as a litmus test for 2020 presidential candidates. ...But even as four of Sanders’s presidential competitors in the Senate vowed to support the new plan, top New Hampshire Democrats were less enthusiastic. None of New Hampshire’s two U.S. senators and two representatives supports the proposed law, and one – Sen. Jeanne Shaheen – appeared to reverse her previous support of the plan Wednesday. (DeWitt, 4/10)