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With the Democratic presidential contest down to a two-person race, Senator Bernie Sanders has declared that he will wield his signature issue, Medicare for all, as a crucial distinction between his campaign and the surging candidacy of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden. “Joe essentially wants to maintain what I consider to be a dysfunctional and cruel health care system,” Mr. Sanders said this week, adding that he hoped they could devote an entire debate to the issue. But an even bigger hurdle than winning the presidency stands between Mr. Sanders and his goal of generous government health insurance for all Americans: Congress. (Goodnough and Abelson, 3/9)

At campaign events over the past year, Mr. Sanders has spoken to tens of thousands of people who come to hear his message of political revolution — who come to imagine a country with universal health care, no student debt and a $15 minimum wage. Almost every line he says onstage rises to a crescendo, inviting cheers of appreciation. With every promise and policy proposal, the crowd becomes a sea of waving blue and white signs with the “Bernie” logo. The Sanders campaign has exposed a class divide within the Democratic Party: His promises of a leg up are most alluring to those who need it, and most confounding to those who do not. (Medina and Ember, 3/9)

It is a common refrain from Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail: The United States is the only developed country that does not provide health coverage to all residents. “Canada can provide universal health care to all their people at half the cost,” he said at a recent Democratic debate. “The U.K. can do it. France can do it. Germany can do it. All of Europe can do it.” Mr. Sanders is right: All these countries provide universal coverage. But what he doesn’t talk about is the excruciating battle they went through to get there. (Bui and Kliff, 3/10)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to unveil a sweeping plan to lower the cost of health care, moving to address the top concern of voters while giving moderate Democrats who face tough re-election races a way to distance themselves from the Medicare for All plan embraced by the progressive left and derided by Republicans as socialism. The legislation, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, is part of a major push by Democrats to position themselves as the party of health care before the 2020 elections. (Stolberg, 3/9)

Republican senators in competitive re-election races have quietly moved toward supporting a provider-friendly surprise billing proposal that appeared to have stalled. As a May 22 deadline to fund expiring healthcare programs gets closer, several vulnerable GOP senators have announced their support for a surprise billing proposal pushed by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that has been shelved by committee leadership. (Cohrs, 3/6)

President Donald Trump stood before about 500 of the Republican Party’s biggest patrons at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday and raised a topic few in the audience expected: Joe Biden’s mental capacity. Trump walked the donors through a list of Biden’s recent verbal stumbles, such as his recent declaration that he was running for Senate and his assertion that 150 million Americans had been killed by gun violence since 2007. Trump questioned whether the former vice president had the mental stamina to sustain the rigors of a general election campaign. (Isenstadt, 3/10)