For me these debates, which are not really debates but are position statements, do help to determine who you would vote for in the primaries. That is the reason to watch them again tonight.

It was the first and perhaps the most contentious issue of the night. Health care. As the assembled Democrats compared the merits of a more comprehensive single-payer plan like Medicare For All, which would completely eliminate private insurance versus a more incremental step of a government-funded public option.

NBC’s Lester Holt asked for a show of hands on the biggest question about Medicare-for-all, a top progressive policy goal: Would you abolish private insurance?

Only two Democratic candidates — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — put their hands up.

The standout moment came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who gave an impassioned defense of the more expansive position, her first time really doing so.

“Look at the business model of an insurance company. It’s to bring in as many dollars as they can in premiums and to pay out as few dollars as possible for your health care. That leaves families with rising premiums, rising copays, and fighting with insurance companies to try to get the health care that their doctors say that they and their children need. Medicare for all solves that problem.”

“There are a lot of politicians who say it’s just not possible, we just can’t do it, have a lot of political reasons for this,” said Warren of the fight for single payer. “What they’re really telling you is they just won’t fight for it. Well, health care is a basic human right and I will fight for basic human rights.”

“… and that is that the insurance companies last year alone sucked $23 billion in profits out of the health care system, $23 billion. And that doesn’t count the money that was paid to executives, the money that was spent lobbying Washington.”

“We have a giant industry that wants our health care system to stay the way it is, because it’s not working for families, but it’s sure as heck working for them. It’s time for us to make families come first.”