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The quest for union support already appears to have had an impact on the candidates’ positions on at least one issue. Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley have all called for repeal of the “Cadillac tax” in the Affordable Care Act, a 40% levy on certain generous employer-sponsored health coverage plans, which is set to take effect in 2018. Getting rid of that tax is a prime issue for the Culinary Union and other labor organizations that have negotiated substantial benefit plans for their members. (Lee, 10/15)

Over the last year, California politicians have been blazing a trail many doubted the rest of the country would follow: offering free healthcare to hundreds of thousands of people in the country illegally. But on Tuesday, presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton took a stance on the contentious issue during a televised Democratic debate, boosting it onto a prominent national stage. (Karlamangla, 10/14)

The Democratic debate made clear that the two leading candidates for the party’s presidential nomination both would allow illegal immigrants to buy coverage on government websites, but not much more. That’s about the same as the status quo. The 2010 health-care overhaul — supported by all the candidates on the stage Tuesday night — requires people to prove legal residency to shop for coverage on HealthCare.gov or obtain tax credits to help pay premiums. They also can’t enroll in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor that also locks out many legal immigrants. The Obama administration extended those rules to children granted immigration enforcement reprieves under a 2012 executive action, and has said it would do the same for adults. (Radnofsky, 10/14)

Let's acknowledge this off the top. A certain set of videos, congressional hearings, efforts to defund a large organization and a big announcement from that same agency that it would change the terms of its fetal tissue program have occupied a lot of time and attention over the last few months. But Tuesday night, it seemed as if the words "abortion" and "Planned Parenthood" almost went missing from the first Democratic debate. (Ross, 10/14)

No news is good news for biotechs. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index is getting reprieve Wednesday, up 1.9% midday versus the S&P 500’s 0.1% decline, after the recently contentious topic of drug pricing received little attention in Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential candidate debate. ... Despite Mrs. Clinton being vocal about her disdain for drug costs lately, the topic only briefly came up during Tuesday’s debate when candidates were asked which enemy they are most proud of. Mrs. Clinton named drug companies in a list that also included health insurance companies, Iranians, Republicans and the National Rifle Association. (Scholer, 10/14)

Sen. Bernie Sanders touted his record on veterans' issues during Tuesday's debate, citing his position as the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs when Congress provided billions of extra dollars to boost healthcare for veterans last year. ... Yet some veterans groups and others criticize Sanders for what they call a lack of oversight of the VA, and for at times coming to its defense in the midst of the scandal that rocked the agency in 2014. (Griffin and Devine, 10/14)