She would restore an Obama-administration policy that provided civil rights protections to transgender patients and women with a history of abortions, among other groups.

Expand benefits in existing insurance programs

She would seek to offer subsidies to new groups of people to help them buy health insurance under Obamacare, including legal noncitizen immigrants and the families of people who can obtain coverage for only themselves through work.

She would also seek to add a dental benefit to the Medicare program, by reinterpreting language in the statute that says dental care can be covered only if it is “medically necessary.” And she would change aspects of the Medicaid program, making it easier for states to offer coverage to more people, even if it will cost the government more.

She would write new rules for a 2008 law that requires insurers to cover mental health care in the same way they cover care for physical ailments. The goal is to expand coverage for mental illness and substance abuse across different types of insurance.

Lower drug prices

Ms. Warren’s regulatory agenda is perhaps most aggressive in its efforts to limit drug prices. She proposes that the federal government employ never-before-used authority to rescind existing patents on medications that were developed with the help of government funding. She would also expand an infrequently used authority so that the government itself could manufacture certain drugs in public health emergencies. Among the drugs and devices she would target are insulin, EpiPens, antibiotics and medications for hepatitis C, H.I.V. and opioid overdoses.

The list of policies above does not include everything that Ms. Warren has proposed. She’d also like to beef up antitrust enforcement in health care, for example. But it gives a sense of the breadth of things she would try to do in health care, even without Congress’s help.

President Trump is far from alone in failing to enact his preferred health policies through legislation. Several presidents before him have struggled to pass major health overhauls. As Democrats head into another debate next week, the moderators may want to consider asking candidates what’s on their health care regulatory wish lists. The answer may be far more useful in predicting the shape of their policy agenda than the details of their legislative dreams.