Looking to appeal to Bernie Sanders’s supporters, Joe Biden announced proposals to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 60 and to expand student debt forgiveness programs.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan is aimed at distancing vulnerable Democrats from Medicare for All and other proposals being pushed by the party’s presidential contenders.
Health care had not been a driving issue for the Massachusetts senator. But the expansive $20.5 trillion package could come to define her candidacy anyway.
National Nurses United, the country’s biggest nurses’ union, also endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016. This time, it chose him over Elizabeth Warren, who has laid out her own Medicare for all plan.
The first debate exchange captured the battle within the Democratic Party over how the presidential nominee should change the country’s health care system.
Some Democrats are proposing a government alternative to private insurance. But allowing people to choose such a plan may destabilize the A.C.A., some experts say.
Ms. Harris is forging her own path on the health care issue, putting forth a plan for providing Medicare for all Americans that stops short of the complete overhaul Bernie Sanders has proposed.