Article snippet: HOUSTON — The leading Democratic presidential candidates split sharply over the issue of health care in a debate Thursday night, exposing the gulf between former vice president Joe Biden’s careful moderate politics and the transformational liberal ambitions of Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Biden, facing all of his closest competitors for the first time in a debate, quickly took the initiative to challenge Warren and Sanders for supporting a “Medicare for All”-style health care system that would displace the existing forms of private insurance. Cloaking himself in the accomplishments of the Obama administration, Biden branded Warren as seeking to upend the progress of the Affordable Care Act. “I know the senator says she’s with Bernie — well, I’m for Barack,” Biden jabbed, attacking the cost of a single-payer program: “How are we going to pay for it?” Warren and Sanders, flanking Biden onstage, pushed back in tandem, dismissing Biden’s criticism and promising that a government-managed health insurance system would ultimately be less expensive for consumers than the private insurance they currently buy. Warren credited former President Barack Obama with having “fundamentally transformed health care in America” but said the country needed to go further. “The richest individuals and the biggest corporations are going to pay more, and middle-class families are going to pay less,” she said. But asked twice by a moderator whe... Link to the full article to read more