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ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE The six Democratic hopefuls divided into two camps on how they would provide greater access to affordable health care. Warren and Sanders maintained their support for a

“Medicare for All” single-payer system. To pay for his system, Sanders said he would levy a 4 percent tax on income over $29,000 a year. “So, the average family in America that today makes

$60,000 would pay $1,200 a year” for health care, compared with the $12,000 a year that family pays now, Sanders said. “We take on the greed and the profiteering and the administrative

nightmare that currently exists in our dysfunctional system.” But Biden, Klobuchar, Buttigieg and businessman Tom Steyer said they want to build on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by adding a

public option to that law. "Everybody on this stage believes that affordable health care is a right for every single American,” Steyer said. “Everybody on this stage knows that

Americans are paying twice as much for health care as any other advanced country in the world. And it makes no sense, and the government has to step in." Buttigieg defended his proposal

to automatically enroll uninsured Americans in the public option he would add to the ACA, essentially resurrecting the requirement that everyone carry insurance. The individual mandate, he

said, “was an important part of the ACA because the system doesn't work if there are free riders. What I'm offering is a choice. You don't have to be in my plan if

there's another plan that you would rather keep,” the mayor added. “And there's no need to kick Americans off the plans that they want in order to deliver health care for all.”

Biden also said that under his plan the 150 million or so Americans who like the health plan they have with their employers could keep it. “If they don't like it, or the employer gets

rid of it, they can buy into a Medicare plan,” he said. Klobuchar said she would also tackle the issue of long-term care. “We need to make it easier for people to get long-term care

insurance,” she said. “We need to make it easier for them to pay their premiums.” That issue, she said, is not important just for older Americans but for “the sandwich generation, people

trying to help their parents."