Article snippet: WASHINGTON — After two years of Republicans’ unsuccessful attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democrats won back the House majority in 2018 with a unified focus on health care. Now the scalpels are out, and the issue is swiftly becoming one of the clearest dividing lines in the Democratic presidential primary. In dueling speeches and barely veiled potshots this week, former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ratcheted up the debate over whether to shore up Barack Obama’s signature achievement by creating an option to choose health care from a government system, as Biden wants, or to transition to a fully government-run system with no role for private insurance companies, which is Sanders’ long-held dream. Meanwhile, candidates such as California Senator Kamala Harris have been accused of waffling as they grapple with the politics of the issue. As the health care battle turns increasingly bitter, what was so recently a political winner for Democrats, akin to kissing babies, is transforming into a minefield that could expose breaks in the party on a fundamental issue and, some worry, threaten the eventual nominee’s success against President Trump. “Due to sheer incompetence, the president has handed Democrats a political gift,” said Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic consultant who worked to pass the Obama-era Affordable Care Act as a top Senate staffer. “I just don’t want to see us squander it by getting sidetracked on debates that ... Link to the full article to read more