"I don't know why people in rural America should have to settle for insurance that no one else in the industrialized world has to settle for... Just because you live in a rural place, why should you have to pay for insurance that's of no use to you?"

Sen. Michael Bennet is an intriguing figure in the national health care debate. The Colorado Democrat sits on the Senate’s two key health care committees, he’s been pragmatic about the Affordable Care Act, and with Sen. Tim Kaine, he’s the author of Medicare-X, a new plan to expand coverage.

The senator sat down with POLITICO’s Dan Diamond to share his reaction to Democrats’ victories in Tuesday’s election (starts at the 15:45 mark), his Medicare-X bill and his exhaustion with the ACA debate (19:40), Democrats’ desire for universal coverage and why Colorado’s single-payer bill failed (28:45), his role on the Senate Finance and HELP committees overseeing HHS and CMS (34:10) and his thoughts on the state of media (43:00).

But first, Josh Peck — the former Chief Marketing Officer of HealthCare.gov and co-founder of Get America Covered — joins PULSE CHECK to discuss the state of ACA open enrollment and what his group is doing to boost coverage. (Starts at the 2:00 mark.)

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Stories referenced on the podcast: 

Maine voters supported Medicaid expansion, on the same day that CMS’s Seema Verma announced new support for Medicaid work requirements: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/07/maine-voters-medicaid-obamacare-244675

Lamar Alexander, Patty Murray had been inching toward a deal to stabilize Obamacare: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/28/alexander-murray-obamacare-plan-243258

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