Story highlights Clinton has sought to cast Sanders' plan as going backwards by repealing Obamacare

"People who have health emergencies can't wait for us to have a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass," Clinton said Friday

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) Hillary Clinton on Friday cast Bernie Sanders' plan for single-payer health insurance as an "idea that will never, ever come to pass."

The swipe builds on Clinton's repeated rhetoric against the Vermont senator's proposed single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care plan that he proposed earlier this month . The plan would provide health coverage to all Americans but would be paid for by raising taxes on most Americans.

Clinton has sought to cast Sanders' plan as going backwards by repealing Obamacare -- President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement -- in order to pass single-payer.

To prove her point on Friday, Clinton asked Joan Hanna, a woman she met backstage here before a campaign event, to talk about how her daughter's brain cancer and coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

"I want you to understand why I am fighting so hard for the Affordable Care Act. I don't want it repealed. I don't want us to be thrown back into a terrible, terrible national debate," Clinton said as Hanna took the stage. "I don't want us to end up in gridlock. People can't wait. People who have health emergencies can't wait for us to have a theoretical debate about some better idea that will never, ever come to pass."

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