By Emmarie Huetteman October
16, 2019
This
time, it wasn’t just about “Medicare for All.”
Voters
got a better look at Democrats’ health care priorities on Tuesday, as 12 of the
leading candidates vowed to codify abortion access, threatened to jail opioid
company executives and added a few more details to their health plans during
the fourth Democratic debate.
While
the debate began on the topic of impeaching President Donald Trump, Sen. Bernie
Sanders of Vermont soon steered the discussion back to kitchen-table issues.
“I
think what would be a disaster, if the American people believe that all we were
doing is taking on Trump,” he said. “We’re forgetting that 87 million Americans
are uninsured or underinsured.”
That
was only the beginning of a series of health care conversations that lasted
through much of the three-hour debate.
With
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts polling in second place before the night
began, she was pressed to offer more details about what Medicare for All would
look like under her leadership — in particular, whether she would raise taxes
to pay for it.
“I have
made clear what my principles are here,” she said. “That is, costs will go up
for the wealthy and for big corporations, and for hard-working, middle-class
families, costs will go down.”
But
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., pushed back, pointing out that,
unlike Sanders — who has said taxes would increase to pay for his universal
health care plan — she had not actually said whether she would raise taxes.
“Your
signature is to have a plan for everything, except this,” Buttigieg said. “No
plan has been laid out to explain how a multitrillion-dollar hole in this plan
that Sen. Warren is putting forward is supposed to get filled in.”
Sen.
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota challenged the practicality of focusing on such a
sweeping overhaul as “Medicare for All.” She pushed her support for a public
option and noted the importance of issues that get less attention, like
long-term care.
“The
difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually
get done,” Klobuchar said.
But
Warren stood her ground. When she was studying bankruptcy as a professor at
Harvard Law School, she said, she noticed that two out of three families that
went bankrupt after a medical problem had health insurance. The problem is
cost, she said: “That is why hard-working people go broke.”
The
candidates also staked their claim on two issues that are critically important
to Democratic voters: strengthening gun control measures and guaranteeing
access to reproductive health care.
Former
Vice President Joe Biden trumpeted his role in securing the now-lapsed assault
weapons ban in 1994. Among others, Sen. Kamala Harris of California called for
a “comprehensive” background check requirement and a ban on the importation of
assault weapons.
And
one-by-one, the candidates vowed to codify abortion access, especially in light
of recent conservative attacks in a number of states on the premise of the
Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
“It’s
not an exaggeration to say women will die because these Republican legislatures
in these various states who are out of touch with America are telling women
what to do with their bodies,” Harris said, a reference to crackdowns on
abortion access in many Republican-controlled states.
After
pointing out earlier in the evening that two Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio
recently closed due to a Trump administration policy change, Sen. Cory Booker
of New Jersey said he would create an office of reproductive freedom and
reproductive rights in his White House.
“It’s
an assault on the most fundamental ideal that human beings should control their
own body,” Booker said.
And
addressing the opioid crisis, blamed for lowering life expectancy in the United
States, many of the candidates called outright for jailing the executives of
opioid manufacturers, whom Harris called “nothing more than some high-level
dope dealers.”
“The
people who should pay for the treatment are the very people that got people
hooked and killed them in the first place,” she said.
The
evening was also Sanders’ first appearance on the debate stage since he had a
heart attack and underwent heart surgery just weeks ago. Asked about his
health, he seemed impatient: “I’m healthy. I’m feeling great,” Sanders said as
he brought the conversation back to policy.
The
debate took place in Westerville, Ohio, a traditionally conservative suburb of
Columbus that had turned blue in recent years — a nod to Democrats’ hopes of
winning with the support of suburban voters in 2020.
And
with those 12 Democrats standing elbow-to-elbow, the debate hosted by CNN and
The New York Times had an unusual distinction: the most candidates to ever
appear onstage at a presidential debate.
The
fifth Democratic debate is scheduled for Nov. 20. The Democratic National
Committee plans to hold 12 primary debates in total.
Emmarie
Huetteman: ehuetteman@kff.org,
@emmarieDC
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