Kamala Harris can't make up her mind about private health insurance

California Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris has some very strong opinions about getting rid of private medical insurance as part of a Medicare for All program. Specifically, she has two very strong ideas. The first is that’s definitely something we should do. The second is that it’s definitely something we shouldn’t do. Which opinion you get from her depends on the day she’s asked and who is listening when the question comes.

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The Free Beacon has a fun timeline of the various flip flops she’s made on the subject and they’re wild enough to make an Olympic gymnast jealous.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) confirmed during a Friday appearance on The View that her Medicare for All plan would not eliminate private supplemental health insurance, rebutting her own past statements indicating that she supported abolishing private insurance.

The PAC America Rising has publicized a clip of Harris’s comments. In front of The View’s panel, Harris pitched her health care platform. “Access to health care should be a right and not a privilege of just those who can afford it,” Harris said.

When Harris affirmed to Sunny Hostin that she was a proponent of Medicare for All, Joy Behar quickly interjected to question whether Harris’s plan would accommodate the option to purchase private insurance.

Let’s just see how long this has been going on.

In her first town hall on CNN, she said private insurance had to go.
The following day, she said private insurance should still be available.
In the first presidential debates, she raised her hand when asked if private insurance should be shut down.
The next morning she said she’d misheard the question.

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And through all of this, Harris has been a co-sponsor of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill which specifically outlaws private health insurance. Does anyone have a copy of the original bill laying around? I’m just wondering if they’ve crossed her name out and then added it back five times in the past month.

Lest you think this is just a chance to dunk on Harris, it’s not. (Well, okay… it is, but there’s substance to the issue as well.) Healthcare remains an important issue in the coming election. The idea of Medicare for all is radical and would cost massive amounts of money we don’t have. Further, the idea of eliminating the entire health insurance industry while removing the option to receive insurance through your employer represents a monumental shift in how we deal with healthcare in this country.

Does Harris really want to do away with private health insurance or not? She seems to change her mind on a weekly basis. Her problem is that she knows the idea polls very poorly with the majority of voters, but it polls through the roof with the hot new socialist wing of her own party. So she doesn’t want to tank her general election chances should she win the nomination, but she also can’t risk looking less woke than Sanders and the others on the far, far left.

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So what’s a candidate to do? Just keep changing your answer based on who you think is listening at that moment. If this is the best the Democrats can do for a candidate they’re in serious trouble.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | December 16, 2024
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