SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Michigan — One of the biggest talking points against Medicare for All heard at the first Democratic primary debate in Detroit Tuesday night was that Medicare for All would take away private insurance, particularly from union members who had worked hard to negotiate for their benefits. Moderate Democrats such as Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and former Rep. John Delaney shared concerns about pushing people off private insurance through Medicare for All.

But from what I heard at a union hall in Macomb County during the debate, taking union health insurance away and putting everyone on Medicare is just fine.

A former teachers' union healthcare negotiator told me union insurance plans are far from perfect. "There are still quotas and limits on care," he told me at a Macomb County Democratic watch party. For example, "[the insurance companies] still say you can only see a specialist so many times. ... You can only have so many incidents or usages in a year."

"Even with optical, you can only get a new pair of eyeglasses every other year," another former negotiator told me. "When we first started teaching, we didn't have premiums at all. Granted, that was 50 years ago."

The two spent years negotiating union healthcare plans for teachers, but both were ready for the country to switch to Medicare for All. Even union healthcare plans still have cuts, they said. The plans are frequently renegotiated with government employers, who are negotiating with an increasingly limited pot of money.

But when Bernie Sanders started to talk about Medicare for All, the two spoke excitedly about how it would include mental healthcare and how it would be based on need rather than what insurance companies say is allowed.

The rest of the country might want to keep their private insurance rather than get pushed onto "Medicare for all." But don't assume union Democrats fear Medicare for All just because their union has been negotiating their healthcare plans.