Groups push for 'Medicare for All' support as primaries near

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — "Medicare for All" has played a role in nearly every stage of the Democratic presidential campaign, but there's been some quibbling over how that phrase is defined. With just weeks until the first 2020 contests, several groups are organizing grassroots efforts aimed at convincing voters they should back candidates who fully support the legislation from which the phrase is derived.

This week, as candidates descended on Iowa for Tuesday's debate at Drake University, U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Mark Pocan, co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, planned a Medicare for All town hall in Des Moines. That event, in conjunction with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement — a progressive group whose political arm has endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president — aimed to "highlight how Medicare for All will help small businesses and working families," organizers said.

Months ahead of the lead-off caucus votes, the group sponsored town hall meetings featuring health care policy experts from the Sanders Institute, the now-defunct think tank started by Sanders' wife and son.

The signature Medicare for All health care proposal of Sanders' 2016 presidential effort has in concept stood for a single-payer, government-run health care system. But the phrase has become somewhat of an umbrella term for a variety of plans to revamp and otherwise reconfigure the existing system.

Sanders has often reminded debate audiences that he "wrote the damn bill" on Medicare for All, which remains the centerpiece of his 2020 campaign. Several other candidates, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, signed on to support the measure, although as a candidate, she has stressed using executive power to make immediate changes, like lowering prescription drug costs.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor...