JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, we return
to a new series we're launching
on the policy positions of

the 2020 presidential
candidates.

Tonight, Lisa Desjardins
explores the various
approaches to reforming
health care coverage

that some prominent
contenders are advocating.

First, some background.

LISA DESJARDINS: In the
big-name, big-field Democratic
race for president, health care

is the biggest issue.

SEN.

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY),
Presidential Candidate:
We want health care
as a right, and not a

privilege.

LISA DESJARDINS: Much of
it echoing one candidate.

SEN.

BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT),
Presidential Candidate:
Is health care a human
right, or is it not?

LISA DESJARDINS: Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders' Medicare for
all legislation is co-sponsored

by no less than four
other senators and one
congresswoman for president.

The Sanders bill would create
one government-run health care
system, ending private health

insurance.

Medicare and Medicaid
enrollees would transition
into the new system.

It wouldn't impact the
Veterans Affairs or Indian
Health Services coverage.

But even as the most Democratic
contenders so far seem
to agree, look carefully.

There is divide over how
far to go and how fast.

The day he announced his
presidential run, New Jersey
Senator Cory Booker, when asked,

said he wouldn't end
private health insurance.

SEN.

CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), Presidential
Candidate: Even countries that
have vast access to publicly

offered health care still have
private health care, so, no.

LISA DESJARDINS: Also in favor
of keeping private health
insurance are Senators Kirsten

Gillibrand of New York
and Elizabeth Warren
of Massachusetts, that
vs. California Senator

Kamala Harris, who told a CNN
town hall in January she does
want to end private insurance.

SEN.

KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA),
Presidential Candidate:
I believe the solution
-- and I actually feel

very strongly about this
-- is that we need to
have Medicare for all.

That's just the bottom line

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

LISA DESJARDINS: Later, her
communications team walked
that back, saying she is open

to other plans as well.

Fully government-run health
care is the broadest idea, but
many Democratic candidates also

support smaller takes on that,
like expanding Medicare to
start 10 years earlier, at age

55, or offering a so-called
public option, which would be a
government-run health insurance

plan, possibly like Medicare.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg
told "NewsHour"'s Judy Woodruff
he likes a government option

now as a first step.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D),
Mayor of South Bend,
Indiana: take a version of
Medicare or something like

it, make it available as a
public option on the exchange.

Then this will be a very
natural glide path to a
single-payer environment.

LISA DESJARDINS:
Meanwhile, polling shows
this is good political
territory for Democrats.

A Kaiser Family Foundation
survey last month
showed a majority, 56
percent, of Americans

they surveyed favor a
Medicare-for-all style
national health plan,
while 42 percent oppose.

A whopping 77 percent
support lowering the
Medicare buy-in age to 50.

Put Minnesota Senator Amy
Klobachar in the camp of too
soon for full-blown government

run health care.

SEN.

AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN),
Presidential Candidate:
I think it's something
that we actually wanted

to do back when we were looking
at the Affordable Care Act,
and we were stopped, was trying

to get a public option in there.

LISA DESJARDINS: All of this is
a shift left from recent years.

For example, the Affordable
Care Act passed in 2010 after
Democrats dropped the idea of

a public option.

For much of the country, it's
also changed from last year,
when most Democrats running

for Congress focused on saving
the Affordable Care Act and its
protections for sick people.

Now the conversation on
the Democratic presidential
trail is about expanding
past, sometimes far

past, the Affordable Care Act.

The candidates have some
different takes on health care.

And to talk about that,
Dylan Scott joins us.

He covers health care and
domestic policy for Vox.

Let's jump right into the
terminology, which I think could
become an issue for the next

year.

We hear Medicare for all.

We hear universal health care.

Is it clear that those
terms mean the same things
to all of these candidates?

DYLAN SCOTT, Vox: Well, I think
it is important to be clear that
there is a bill in the United

States Senate called the Expand
and Improve Medicare for All
Act that Bernie Sanders has

put forward.

And that would institute
a single-payer national
health insurance program
that every American

would be covered under.

So that is the legislation
that, when Bernie Sanders talks
about Medicare for all, that's

what he means.

But Medicare for all
has also taken on a bit
of a life of its own.

It's become a slogan that I
think signifies that we want
to expand health care access,

we want more people
to be able to join
Medicare if they want to.

But, for some people, the not
-- maybe the people who aren't
true believers in single-payer

health care, it's become more
of an effective branding to talk
about universal health care,

as opposed to a specific
policy proposal that's been
written into legislative text.

LISA DESJARDINS: That leads
exactly to my next question.

We have almost every candidate
from Congress who's a Democrat
backing Bernie Sanders' plan,

technically.

Do we know, if president,
if these people would
actually enact that?

It seems like it might
not be their first choice.

How do you break down what
they really want to do?

DYLAN SCOTT: So I think of
the Democratic candidates in
a couple different buckets.

You have the true
believers, the Bernie
Sanders, who say Medicare
for all, single-payer is

where we need to go, and that's
the bill we should be putting
up on the -- up in Congress

in 2021, if we get control
of the White House and
the Senate and the House.

But there's another bucket
of Democrats who are a little
more flexible, let's say.

They -- they have endorsed
the Bernie Sanders bill.

They say their goal is to get
to a Medicare for all system.

But in the near term, they
will talk about shoring up the
Affordable Care Act, tackling

prescription drug prices.

And then over a little
longer-term time horizon,
they're more willing to
take incremental steps

to get to a Medicare
for all system.

Then, you do have a third
bucket of Democrats who don't
want anything to do with this.

They're aware of some of the
attacks that will be made
against the Medicare for all

program, like it'll lead to
higher taxes, less access,
the socialist takeover of the

medical system.

For Democratic voters, the
interesting question will be, is
it important to have a kind of

absolutist approach, where
we must have single-payer?

Or do they like hearing that
your goal is to expand health
care access, but they're

not as caught up on the
details of how you get there?

LISA DESJARDINS: There's
also some political
calculation here, right?

If someone goes too far to
the left in the primary,
can they win in the general?

What do we know about the
overall population and what the
Americans in general want for

health care?

DYLAN SCOTT: Voters are
comfortable with a pretty robust
government role in providing

health care access
to our population.

Now, whether that means
they're really interested
in a single-payer
program, I think, is the

great undetermined question.

When you talk to pollsters,
they will actually say, I don't
think Americans really know what

they think about
single-payer yet.

We do like the idea of everybody
having access to health care,
and we're comfortable with

the government having a
big role in providing it.

But people get a little antsy
if they -- if they hear that,
well, everybody is going to

be forced into this
government insurance program.

They like the idea of choice.

Now, whether that choice is,
can I choose the insurance
carrier and the insurance card

that I keep in my wallet,
or whether the more
important choice is
about what doctor I can

go see and what hospital
will take my insurance,
I think that's one of
the things that we're

still figuring out.

Americans like the idea
of universal health
care, but higher taxes
obviously make Americans

nervous.

The idea that they
might lose some choice
makes Americans nervous.

And so I think what remains
to be seen is whether they're
as committed as the Bernie

Sanders of the world
to a national health
insurance program that's
comparable to something

like Canada, or whether
they would be OK with
more incremental steps.

But the idea of disrupting a
system that's mostly working
for them makes them more nervous

than anything else.

LISA DESJARDINS: And we're also
waiting to see in some cases
how these candidates would

pay for their plans, right?

DYLAN SCOTT: Yes.

That's the issue nobody
really wants to touch.

LISA DESJARDINS: Dylan Scott,
we will ask you about it
hopefully in the future.

Thank you for joining us.

DYLAN SCOTT: Thank you.