You Can Call Him Al

If you're as bewildered as I am about the differences between all the proposals by Democratic candidates for  president about healthcare, this week's Al Franken podcast may be for you.  The guest is Andy Slavitt -- who fixed the HealthCare.Gov website mess and then headed up Medicare and Medicaid in the Obama Administration.  He  returns for a second visit to discuss the health care proposals of those Democratic candidates.

As the site notes, "Al and Andy agree that it’s important for every contender to lay out their plans to get to universal coverage, but exhort them not to squander the enormous advantage we have over Trump and Republicans on an issue of such importance to every American."

A listening note:  I always enjoy Franken's opening few minutes before the guest, where he talks more randomly about topics in the news.  And he has a good story here about dealing with Ted Cruz over semi-automatic weapons.  And the opening part of his conversation with Slavitt is interesting, as well, where they address how unnecessary and why so much of the distinctions the Democratic candidates were making about their healthcare proposals during the debate, since they all basically agree with one another what's needed (like arguing which color is better, sky blue or royal blue), as opposed to Trump and the GOP who are trying to eliminate universal healthcare.  But if you want to get more directly to the conversation about what the distinctions actually are, you can jump to the 20-minute mark.