Democratic presidential contenders battled over health care coverage and border policy on Wednesday during a surprisingly heated first debate that laid bare the party\u2019s divisions on whether to abolish private insurance and shift to a Medicare-for-All system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But they also turned their fire on each other, most often targeting Beto O\u2019Rourke. The former congressman tangled with Castro, a fellow Texan, on border policy, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The intensity of the exchanges after six months of a relatively mild campaign reflected the high stakes in what could be a make-or-break moment for some of the contenders struggling to be noticed in the Democratic field of more than 20 candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one mentioned front-runner Joe Biden, who will take the stage with top rival Bernie Sanders and eight other candidates in the second debate on Thursday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first round of back-to-back debates, several of the lesser-known candidates vied for attention in the crowded race to take on President Donald Trump, shouting over one another to grab the spotlight and prove they are capable of standing up to the Republican in the November 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Democratic contenders repeatedly attacked Trump, saying his economic policies benefited the wealthy at the expense of working Americans, and calling his border policies heartless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The battle over healthcare began when the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they support eliminating private health insurance. Only US Senator Elizabeth Warren and de Blasio did so, but they quickly challenged the other eight candidates on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After years of defending former Democratic President Barack Obama\u2019s landmark healthcare law known as Obamacare from Republican attempts to repeal it, Democrats have struggled during the campaign to agree on the best approach to fixing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren, a leader of the party\u2019s progressive wing who has been surging in opinion polls, said private insurance was taking advantage of Americans. She backs a government-sponsored Medicare-for-All approach and criticized those who say it is not politically feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat they are really telling you is they just won\u2019t fight for it. Healthcare is a basic right, and I will fight for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But former US Representative John Delaney, an outspoken critic of Medicare for All who supports a universal healthcare approach that includes private insurance, said Democrats should not throw away a system that some Americans are happy with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Medicare for All approach pushed by Warren and Sanders, which has gained support in Congress, would create a government-operated plan that eliminates private insurance. It is modeled on the Medicare government healthcare program for seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democratic presidential contenders battled over health care coverage and border policy on Wednesday during a surprisingly heated first debate that laid bare the party\u2019s divisions on whether to abolish private insurance and shift to a Medicare-for-All system. But they also turned their fire on each other, most often targeting Beto O\u2019Rourke. The former congressman tangled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64751,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64749\/revisions\/64751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}