Different Takes: Since Health Care Is No. 1 Issue, Expect All The Important Answers During The Debates; Where Was The Fight Among Progressives?

Stat: 3 Health Care Questions The Democratic Candidates Must Answer 
Health care is the number one issue on the minds of Democratic voters: Nearly 9 in 10 of them saying they want the topic discussed during the presidential candidate debates. Indeed, all candidates vying for the Democratic nomination seem to agree that everyone should have health care coverage, marking a huge step forward. After all, not long ago advocating for “universal” coverage was highly sensitive political territory. But many candidates have been vague and noncommittal about how, exactly, they want to reform our health care system. Voters deserve the opportunity to understand the real, significant differences between each candidate’s approach to this critical issue. As voters watch the debates this week, they should pay close attention to the candidates’ answers (and non-answers) to these three key questions. (Arthur ''Tim'' Garson, Jr. and Ryan Holeywell, 7/30)

The Washington Post: The First Night Of The CNN Debate Showed Just How Fractious The Democratic Primary Fight May Get
It was the Detroit Donnybrook. Tuesday’s Democratic debate was choppy but passionate, opening up wide philosophical divisions within the party’s presidential field and providing sound bites critical of progressive ideas and candidates that Republicans are certain to use in 2020. Moderate candidates trailing in the polls went in determined to upend Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.), the two strongest candidates on the stage and leaders of the party’s left. Warren and Sanders were still standing at the end. Warren was consistently crisp, displaying the mastery-on-the-run that has lifted her in the polls. (E.J. Dionne Jr. 7/31)

Fox News: Debate Drama -- Marianne Williamson Scores With Attacks On 'Dark Psychic Forces,' Google Goes Nuts
It wasn’t the debate result many in the media wanted. Author Marianne Williamson was the surprise star of a debate where she had very little time compared to her opponents – less than half that of the big-name candidates. Williamson’s debate strategy was to push for “radical truth-telling.” This included a call for up to $500 billion in reparations for African-Americans and some tough talk about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis that won her loud support in the Detroit audience. New York Times reporter Katie Benner pointed out how Williamson used Flint “to tackle the issue of racism head on.” (Dan Gainor, 7/30)

The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders, Marooned Together On Fantasy Island
I’m no good at sartorial stuff, so I can’t describe how Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were actually dressed. But I can tell you what they were effectively wearing: targets. They came into the debate in Detroit on Tuesday night not just as the highest-polling candidates among the 10 on the stage, but also as the most ardent progressives, with plans more expansive and expensive than their rivals’. That gave those rivals both the motivation and the means to attack. (Frank Bruni, 7/31)

The Washington Post: What Debate Moderators Should Ask Kamala Harris About Her Medicare-For-All Plan
Just in time for her second Democratic presidential debate appearance, on Wednesday night, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) has unveiled a Medicare-for-all plan. The timing of Harris’s release is excellent news for health-care wonks; now CNN’s Dana Bash, Don Lemon and Jake Tapper will have an opportunity to ask her to fill in the plan’s somewhat scanty details. Here are some questions about Harris’s Medicare-for-all plan the debate moderators might want to consider. (Megan McArdle, 7/30)

The New York Times: Fix Our Health Care System. Don’t Try To Make It Perfect.
When did so many of our elected leaders become so uncompromising on health care? Was it the moment when many in the Democratic field raised their hands in support of providing subsidized health insurance to all undocumented immigrants? That’s a position that even our peer countries with better coverage rates have yet to embrace. (Vin Gupta, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Despite What Sanders Says, Harris May Have The Best Claim To Medicare-For-All
After months of confusing statements on the campaign trail, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) has finally released her proposal to offer comprehensive, universal health-care coverage under the Medicare-for-all brand. Harris’s rollout Monday was met with swift criticism from both the Biden camp, which called it “A Bernie Sanders-lite Medicare for All,” and the Sanders camp, which insists Harris “can’t call [her] plan Medicare for All.” (Charles Gaba, 7/30)

The Hill: The Overarching Theme Of TrumpCare: More Choice, Less Cost 
Opponents have accused the Trump administration of taking a fragmented, inconsistent approach toward the health-care system. They are wrong. There is a definite overriding strategy which favors deregulation and the re-introduction of market forces to provide more choices for patients, while at the same time protecting the essential pieces of the existing system — namely, employer-based insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. (Marc Siegel, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Medicare Just Turned 54. Let’s Remember What Republicans Said About It.
There may come a day when we here in America have settled our major arguments about what sort of health-care system we should have and all that remains is making minor adjustments to something whose basic structure is no longer a point of contention. This is not that day. But this day is the anniversary of the day 54 years ago when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill that created Medicare and Medicaid. (Paul Waldman, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Where Does Biden Stand On Cancer Screening?
‘If I’m elected president,” Joe Biden says, “we’re going to cure cancer.” Mr. Biden has a personal interest in the disease, which killed his son Beau in 2015. But the Obama-Biden administration had a bad record on screening, the best way to save patients from cancer. When Barack Obama was president, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—a panel of experts in the Health and Human Services Department, whose advice guides coverage decisions for both private and government insurance—argued that screening should be limited to prevent false positives, which the panel claimed cause distress and unnecessary further testing. (Betsy McCaughey, 7/30)