Kamala Harris, one of many Democratic candidates for President of the United States, certainly has stood out for her politics; opinions and policy ideas up to this point. Her otherwise dramatic healthcare plan is now catching significant steam online — mostly because it in multiple ways falls short of what most Democratic progressives actually want.
In the plan, Harris has proposed their own version of what otherwise is Bernie Sanders’ equally dramatic Medicare for All plan. At first glance, the plan is certainly something that could benefit the average American although it certainly has its plentiful negatives.
Let’s dig into it. According to Kamala’s healthcare plan, she embraces a significantly larger single-payer healthcare system. This is perhaps one of the key differences between her plan the plan embraced by almost every other Dem progressive candidate.
First and foremost, I want to point out the real-life definitions of each of the two types of systems.
A single-payer healthcare is defined as a system that is categorized as universal healthcare financed by taxes that cover the cost of healthcare for essentially all residents/Americans.
“Medicare For All” is defined as a system that would dramatically reshape Medicare as most Americans know it. The program (which has historically been for elderly folks) would see itself widely opend to the masses [something that has never been before].
One particular talking point that I found troublesome about Harris’s plan is that Harris still envisions a role for private insurers (yes, those people who have largely screwed Americans for decades). I hate to be the one to call out Harris for obvious (and probable) prior connections to the insurance world and those within it.
The next thing I talk about is going to partially explain why. In a Medium post, Harris says that her “main goal is to lower healthcare costs” but in order to do so for some reason she feels the first major thing she should do — is give insurance companies 10 years to comply with the nnew single payer system compared to the four years that would be required under Sanders’ version of his own policy.
Kamala Harris’ plan:
Single-payer healthcare system
Immediately Americans will have the opportunity to buy into Medicare (comparable to Sanders plan.)
Doesn’t want to raise taxes on middle class Americans
It’s worth noting the following passage directly from Harris’s Medium article.
Right now, the American health care system is a patchwork of plans, providers and costs that have left people frustrated, powerless and insurance companies in charge. And the bottom line is that health care just costs too much. So as a presidential candidate, here is where I stand to make transformative change for the better.
The issue I take with this statement is that it rings so true but elements in other parts of her plan do not align with the reality clearly outlined in this paragraph of her article.
Her answer? She wants to give 10 more years of terror to insurance companies to adjust to the change she is proposing. 10 years is a significant amount of time in terms of healthcare — in that time the number of health related deaths could be potentially astronomical.
That alone is a big negative in already crowded industry that has long put profit over the well-being of others. 10 years is quite a long time.
But let’s talk about the buy in phase. Harris claims that with the ability to buy in — healthcare costs would almost immediately drop and provide a period that would allow Harris and her administration to lay the framework for the eventual Medicare for All (at least her form of it).
Even plausibly more interesting… Harris announced that she would allow private insurers to sell Medicare plans. In her own words, this is how she says that would work.
This would function similar to how private Medicare plans work today, which cover about a third of Medicare seniors, and operate within the Medicare system. Medicare will set the rules of the road for these plans, including price and quality, and private insurance companies will play by those rules, not the other way around. This preserves the options that seniors have today and expands options to all Americans, while also telling insurance companies they don’t run the show
Overall, especially with the phase in period, Harris’s plan generously extends time to the already problematic agencies in which are largely part of the culprits in America.
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