Vice President Kamala Harris supported “Medicare for All” and abolishing private health insurance as recently as 2019, before later proposing her own more moderate plan.
Harris was a co-signer on Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill in 2017, which sought to eliminate private insurers and create a new single-payer system with the federal government acting as the sole provider of healthcare services. She then went on to support abolishing private insurance in a June 2019 presidential primary debate before claiming it was a gaffe two days later, putting out a revised policy the following month that permitted private insurers to exist if they adhered to “strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits.”
“Essentially, we would allow private insurance to offer a plan in the Medicare system, but they will be subject to strict requirements to ensure it lowers costs and expands services,” Harris wrote in a Medium post in July 2019. “If they want to play by our rules, they can be in the system. If not, they have to get out.”
Some Kamala classics from @taxreformer.
1. In your plan, eventually everyone would be taken off the private plan that their company currently has? “Yes.”
2. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
3. Do you ban plastic straws? “I think we should. Yes.”
4. “I… pic.twitter.com/NDvAF5vL6q
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 5, 2024
Harris described Sanders’ ‘Medicare for All’ bill as “just the right thing to do” in 2017, before shifting gears just two years later and using her more moderate proposal to attack Sanders, primarily by questioning where the money needed to fund the costly program would come from, according to the Washington Examiner. Harris’s own plan during her presidential run called for a 10-year phase-in period as opposed to just four years under Sanders’ plan, according to the Medium post.
“One of Senator Sanders’ options is to tax households making above $29,000 an additional 4% income-based premium. I believe this hits the middle class too hard,” Harris wrote in her post on Medium. “That’s why I propose that we exempt households making below $100,000, along with a higher income threshold for middle-class families living in high-cost areas. To pay for this specific change, I would tax Wall Street stock trades.”
Harris has so far gone along with Biden’s more moderate healthcare agenda, which has involved boosting enrollment in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Basic Health Program, while also increasing price transparency on pharmaceuticals.
“Like President Biden, Vice President Harris believes that health care is a right, not a privilege. Together, they promised to ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care and the peace of mind that health insurance brings,” a White House press release stated in August 2021.
The Harris campaign and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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