‘Medicare For All’ Might Be Hot Buzz Phrase These Days, But On Debate Stage Most Candidates Equivocate

Reuters: Harris Challenges Biden In Breakout U.S. Debate Performance
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris dominated her Democratic rivals in a debate on Thursday, confronting front-runner Joe Biden on race and calling his remarks about working with segregationist senators "hurtful." In a breakout performance, the daughter of a black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother was at the center of several heated exchanges during the second night of debates among Democrats vying for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. (Oliphant and Gibson, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Takeaways From Night 2 Of The Democratic Debate
The roster for Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate demonstrated some of the party's major divisions — even before candidates started talking. (Riccardi and Summers, 6/28)

The Washington Post: Democratic Presidential Candidates Dive Into Complicated Health Policy With Mixed Results
For two nights, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates tried to navigate the complicated terrain of national health-care policy — with answers that were often oversimplified, incomplete or simply misleading, according to health-care experts. Both nights saw abbreviated explanations of how to move 330 million Americans onto a single government health insurance system. Candidates gave dire warnings about the dangers of Medicare-for-all that even the proposal’s critics say could not come to pass. And some of the Democratic presidential candidates overstated rising costs during the Trump administration. (Stein and Abutaleb, 6/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Top Takeaways Of Democratic Debates — Biden A Target As Field Tilts Left
Candidates are picking one of two lanes on policy areas such as health care: as left of each other as they can get, or as close to the center as possible. The debates showed how that split could divide the party even before Republicans fire up their attack ads. (Kopan and Garofoli, 6/27)

The New York Times: Which Candidates And Topics Got The Most Time During The Second Democratic Debate
When the moderator asked who would abolish private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan, only Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Ms. Harris raised their hands. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York explained that she supports Mr. Sanders’ “Medicare for all” bill, but that it will have a transition period for people to actively buy-in. (6/27)

The Hill: Sanders, Harris Only Dem Debaters To Favor Eliminating Private Health Insurance
Gillibrand said the quickest way to get to universal health care, where all Americans have insurance, is to let people “buy in” to the Medicare program. “I believe we need to get to universal health care as a right, not a privilege, to single payer. The quickest way you get there is you create competition with the insurers,” she said.  (Hellmann, 6/27)

Kaiser Health News: Health Care Gets Heated On Night 2 Of The Democratic Presidential Debate
Candidates including South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet offered their takes on universal coverage, each underscoring the importance of a transition from the current system and suggesting that a public option approach, something that would allow people to buy into a program like Medicare, would offer a “glide path” to the ultimate goal of universal coverage. (Luthra, 6/27)

The Hill: Biden Vows To Oppose Any Democrat Or Republican Who Wants To Dismantle ObamaCare
Former Vice President Joe Biden said the fastest way to get to universal health care coverage is to build on ObamaCare and vowed to oppose any Democrat or Republican who tries to cut down the law. "I’m against any Democrat who wants to take down ObamaCare and any Republican who wants to take it away," Biden said. (Weixel, 6/27)

The New York Times: 6 Takeaways From Night 2 Of The Democratic Debate
Mr. Sanders entered the debate as a top candidate in the polls and fund-raising, and there were big expectations he would use his stature to push his message of revolution and aggressively go after Mr. Biden. But though many of the progressive policy ideas he has helped popularize dominated the night — most notably, universal health care — he at times got lost on stage, overshadowed in particular by Ms. Harris. (Glueck, Goldmacher, Ember and Epstein, 6/27)

The Washington Post: Who Talked Most During The Democratic Debate
Onstage with several candidates who are decades younger than him, [Sanders] also is trying to make the argument that a septuagenarian should be the face of revolutionary change in Washington. He talked about that revolution when asked how he would get his health-care plan passed. “We’ll do it the way real change has always taken place, whether it was the labor movement, the women’s rights movement or the civil rights movement,” he said. “When tens of millions of people are prepared to tell the insurance companies and the drug companies that their days are gone, that health care is a human right.” (Davies, Fuchs, Mellnik, Schaul, Wootson and Hughes, 6/27)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Fact-Checking Night 2 Of The First Democratic Debate
Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.): “Except for plastic surgery, everything else is banned under the Medicare-for-all proposal.” Bennet is basically correct. Section 107 of the Sanders Medicare-for-all would make it illegal for any private health insurer to sell coverage that duplicated benefits under the law or for any employer to duplicate the benefits, but would not prohibit the sale of health insurance for benefits not covered under the bill. But the bill proposes to cover just about everything. Hospital services. Primary and preventive care. Prescription drugs and medical devices. Mental health care. Lab work. Pediatrics. Dentistry. Hearing and vision care. Rehab. Emergency services. Even long-term care. (Kessler, Rizzo, Lee and Kelly, 6/28)

The Atlantic: Democrats Challenge Sanders On Socialism, Health Care
In one of the first exchanges of the night, the moderators cited Sanders’s affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America, and asked former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper whether the Democratic Party is veering toward socialism. Hickenlooper replied by criticizing two policy proposals that Sanders has famously championed: Medicare for All, which would usher in a government-run health-care system, and the Green New Deal, the ambitious blueprint to combat climate change. The moderate Hickenlooper, who took heat earlier this year for declining to call himself a capitalist, called for the candidates to more clearly communicate that “we,” meaning the Democrats, “are not socialists.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York cut in too, trying to assure viewers that the current debate within the party is not about socialism, but “between capitalism on the one hand and greed on the other.” (Godfrey, 6/27)

Boston Globe: Biden, Harris Sharply Clash Over Race As Candidates Take Forceful Shots At Front-Runners During Debate
Hickenlooper, a moderate, also aimed his fire at Sanders’ plan. “I believe health care is a right and not a privilege but you can’t expect to eliminate private insurance for 180 million people, many of whom don’t want to give it up,” he said. (Goodwin and Bidgood, 6/28)

Bloomberg: Medicare For All Plan: Should Private Insurance Be Abolished? 
The party’s embrace of some form of government-run insurance will certainly be a line of attack for Republicans during the general election. Immediately after the debate, President Donald Trump’s campaign issued a statement attacking Democrats. “All of the Democrats tripped over each other in a race to see who could stand out as the most leftist candidate, threatening government control of every aspect of people’s lives,” said campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. (Edney and Kapur, 6/27)

The New York Times: Bernie Sanders On Health Care Costs
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other 2020 candidates often note that the United States spends twice as much on health care as other comparable nations but gets less value in return. (Stevens, 6/27)

Meanwhile, more from the first night of the debate —

Kaiser Health News: Delaney’s Debate Claim That ‘Medicare For All’ Will Shutter Hospitals Goes Overboard
At the first Democratic presidential primary debate, former Rep. John Delaney (Md.) outlined his opposition to “Medicare for All” and focused on one potential loser: hospitals. “If you go to every hospital in this country and you ask them one question, which is, ‘How would it have been for you last year if every one of your bills were paid at the Medicare rate?’ Every single hospital administrator said they would close,” he said. (Luthra, 6/27)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health’: Dems Debate Health Care
Health care played a feature role in the first debate among Democratic presidential candidates Wednesday, with would-be nominees spreading across the spectrum on the question of how quickly to move to universal coverage and what, if any, role should remain for private insurance. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump earlier this week signed an executive order calling for hospital prices to be made more available to the public. But some analysts wonder if publicizing prices could cause them to rise rather than fall. (6/27)