Medicare for All plan won’t end private insurance, says Senator Kamala Harris

Medicare for All - Official Portrait of Kamala Harris

The senator’s new strategy would transition all Americans to coverage within the span of a decade.

Senator Kamala Harris released a new Medicare for All healthcare plan at the start of this week. The purpose would be to transition all Americans into the system within 10 years.

The healthcare plan would let private insurance companies remain provided they are compliant.

This plan was released ahead of this week’s Democratic debates in Detroit. This Medicare for All healthcare plan doesn’t move as quickly nor span as widely as Senator Bernie Sanders’ strategy. Harris co-sponsored Sanders’ plan in the Senate. That said, her own plan places Harris in a position to the left of former vice president Joe Biden, the current moderate front runner. It would guarantee that all Americans would have health insurance coverage. It also provides some clarity to Harris’ position on the private health insurance sector. Until now, her position had been seen as hazy.

The California Senator’s plan also eliminates a middle class tax that Sanders said was a possibility for financing his healthcare strategy. Sanders’ plan comes with a proposed 4 percent income-based premium on households making more than $29,000 per year in order to fund the plan. Harris’ healthcare plan raises that earnings bar to $100,000. Both Harris and Sanders have proposed new stock, bond and derivatives transactions taxes, reported CNBC.

The Medicare for All plan would gradually transition a version of the current plan across all Americans.

“Medicare works. It’s popular. Seniors transition into it every day, and people keep their doctors and get care at a lower cost. Let’s not lose sight that we have a Medicare system that’s already working,” wrote Harris in her healthcare plan. “Now, let’s expand it to all Americans and give everyone access to comprehensive health care.”

Not long after Harris’ proposal was published online, the Biden campaign released its own highly critical statement. Biden’s statement labeled Harris’ proposal as a “have-it-every-which-way approach” that backtracked on her Medicare for All - Official Portrait of Kamala Harrisprevious Sanders plan support. Biden’s statement also claimed that Harris’ plan would need a “large tax increase” on the middle class in order to fund it, regardless of her intentions to the contrary.

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