Politico's Pulse Check

"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