Kamala Harris on Private Insurance: No, Yes, Sort Of, No, Huh?
[guest post by JVW]
The consensus debate winner from last night’s second Democrat festival of gasbaggery, California Senator Kamala Harris, has been all over the map regarding what, if any, role private health insurance plans will play in her version of Medicaid for All. Witness:
California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, speaking during a town hall Monday night, vowed to eliminate all private health care insurance for approximately 150 million Americans if she is elected president.
Asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if people who like their current health care insurance could keep it under Harris’ “Medicare for All” plan, Harris indicated they could not — but that, in turn, they would experience health care without any delays.
[. . .] Harris’s national press secretary Ian Sams and an unnamed advisor told CNN that she would also be open to pursuing more moderate healthcare reforms that would allow the 177 million Americans currently using private health insurance plans to keep them.
“Medicare-for-all is the plan that she believes will solve the problem and get all Americans covered. Period,” Sams told CNN. “She has co-sponsored other pieces of legislation that she sees as a path to getting us there, but this is the plan she is running on.”
Tapper asked about her support for Medicare For All and her call in a January town hall on CNN that she supports “eliminating” the private health insurance industry.
“That’s not what I meant!” Harris said.
“I support Medicare for all but I really do need to clear up what happened on that stage,” she said. “It was in the context of saying let’s get rid of all the bureaucracy.”
And then later in that interview:
TAPPER: OK. [The Sanders bill which Harris supports] doesn’t get rid of all insurance.
HARRIS: OK. Right.
TAPPER: … but for all essential health care benefits.
HARRIS: But — but why? Ask the question, why?
The question — the answer to that question is because Medicare for all and the vision of what it will be includes an expansion of coverage. So, Medicare for all will include vision. It will include dental. It will include hearing aids.
TAPPER: There are a lot of members of unions, for example, who like their private insurance…
HARRIS: Right. Right.
TAPPER: … and the plans that have been negotiated on their behalf and don’t want that replaced.
HARRIS: Right.
Well, listen, let me just tell you something. I completely agree with those members of organized labor who have negotiated for plans and have, in those negotiation processes — processes, often give enough what could have been higher wages in exchange for a higher coverage for health care.
When the Democratic candidates at Thursday night’s debate were asked if their Medicare for All plan would eliminate private health insurance, two people’s hands went up: Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio were the only candidates to take that position last night.
Tonight's candidates who raised their hands to abolish private insurance: Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/MG58k71hUV
— Axios (@axios) June 28, 2019
Then, just 90 minutes after the debate ended:
Just asked @KamalaHarris after the debate about raising her hand to the health insurance question — she said she interpreted the Q to mean *her own* insurance plan.
Lester's question: pic.twitter.com/ZYde1pndPk— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 28, 2019
Harris maintained that folks should continue to opt into private supplemental insurance, as well as union members satisfied with already-negotiated health insurance plans. https://t.co/Z1zkHU1jQs
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 28, 2019
In Senator Harris’s defense, it was a very poorly-worded question. But the question begins with “many people watching at home” which is the subject of the sentence, so when the object of the follow-up sentence is the pronoun “their,” it seems that it ought to refer back to “many people watching at home,” not “we narcissists on the stage tonight,” though, in fairness, it’s unreasonable to expect politicians not to be thinking of themselves first. Yet somehow it seems that nine of the ten participants understood what was being asked (though, in all honesty, we can’t ever be fully sure where Marianne Williamson is concerned), so Sen. Harris is probably the only candidate over whose head the question apparently passed.
So maybe, just maybe, Kamala Harris has a coherent and consistent plan for the role of private health insurance in her Medicaid for All scheme, but I kind of think her problem is that she is just trying to be everything to all extremes of her party’s disparate coalition. Expectations seem to be that her strong performance last night will raise her up in the polls and solidify herself in a Top Four with Biden, Sanders, and Warren. If so, she may find that the long knives are now pointed at her, and her notoriously sloppy and inconsistent answers might not cut it any longer.
– JVW
I’ll just leave this here as an overnight post, in case anyone is up and reading.
JVW (54fd0b) — 6/28/2019 @ 1:27 amJust a thought…
mg (8cbc69) — 6/28/2019 @ 4:12 amThe structure of the camel’s foot is well-adapted for the creature’s environment. The wide, spreading toes keep the camel from sinking into loose and shifting sands, and the webbing between the toes unites them into a single surface to further resist sinking. The thick sole provides a barrier against the hot desert sands, protecting the camel from being burned as it walks. The inner ball of fat also helps, as it has an insulting and cushioning effect.
“it was a very poorly-worded question”
No, it was a very carefully worded question. Its vagary is intentional: it’s designed to let Democratic candidates off the hook.
slobodo (f0d6ab) — 6/28/2019 @ 4:40 amShe had her ‘parents met in Selma’ moment, she went to school in Canada.
Narciso (30eb7e) — 6/28/2019 @ 6:22 amPoliticians talk out of both sides of their mouth. Who knew?
Bored Lawyer (998177) — 6/28/2019 @ 7:06 amWhat evidence is there that she will FIGHT To retain private Health Insurance? ZERO. As for Harris being some sort of “moderate” who’s being PUSHED to the Left, what evidence is there? Except people want to believe it.
rcocean (1a839e) — 6/28/2019 @ 7:15 amAt some point, it would be useful to hear a candidate state that healthcare services will always be rationed in some manner. Private insurance is one way of rationing, although it is admittedly imperfect, correlating service with income or employment and having no allowances for availability of care. Public insurance is another way of rationing, in this case correlating service with age (Medicare) or need (Medicaid). It’s also imperfect, being unavailable to many who need it and being unaffordable in the longer term and, in practice unsupportable because it requires many more doctors and nurses than we now have.
If the goal of providing health services to the public is to be regarded as a right, then we ought to consider if the reactive care/insurance approach which has led to increased specialization and increased cost (think of the added complexity of healthcare coding) is a viable long-term template for developing public policy.
John B Boddie (72f331) — 6/28/2019 @ 7:54 amKamala Harris correctly interpreted the question as to what they would ideally do; she’s claiming here that it won’t pass, so people shouldn’t worry about it.
Sammy Finkelman (4eddd7) — 6/28/2019 @ 7:58 amKamala Harris is clever. She knows that the LA Times, LOOOOVEEES her. It even ran a story on her Spotify list (“has great taste”).
She knows the new voter too: not the plumbers, defense contractor employees of old California. New California voters absorb platitudes like water, (and only came here for soap). They only want to know: (1), how much you’ll spend for them; (2) how much you’ll spend for really good causes, like the bullet train, or STEM cell research, (3) how many non-violent felons will be released because they’re non-violent and its mean to keep them in prison, (4), how many undocumented citizens we’ll accept as our never diminishing obligation to humanity.
The national media will support her too. Reporters are extinct. “Journalists” will echo her sentiments, report on her personality, and excuse her failings. She is not Trump and is therefore good.
She’s a real player. Republicans who think otherwise are not in touch, but what else is new.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 6/28/2019 @ 8:13 amJune 28:
She seems like the perfect successor for Obama.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/28/2019 @ 10:13 amMore like Hillary Clinton.
In the meantime, what’s the truth about where she attended school?
It seems like she is right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
Sammy Finkelman (4eddd7) — 6/28/2019 @ 10:35 amFootnote 16 from the Wikipedia article:
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/07/sen-harris-didnt-lie-about-integration/
So she was indeed, the second class, and Biden was right, it was a decision by the local government.
Sammy Finkelman (4eddd7) — 6/28/2019 @ 10:38 amKamala Harris has always been in the top four for the simple reason that she is guaranteed a large number of delegates from California on the first Dem Primary Super Tuesday.
The rumor mill states that she’s the one with Obama’s backing too, if she proves herself as things go on.
Ingot9455 (afdf95) — 6/28/2019 @ 10:51 amKamala Harris has always been in the top four for the simple reason that she is guaranteed a large number of delegates from California on the first Dem Primary Super Tuesday.
Maybe, but I think a poll taken last week, pre-debate, had her behind both Sanders and Biden and with Warren pretty close to her. Perhaps that will change after last night’s performance.
JVW (54fd0b) — 6/28/2019 @ 12:06 pmJVW, the poll is at https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7wx193w5
Biden 22
Warren 18
Sanders 17
Harris 13
Buttigieg 10
The ideology breakdown is interesting:
VERY LIBERAL: Warren 32, Sanders 21, Harris 15, Biden 12, Buttigieg 8
SOMEWHAT LIBERAL: Biden 19, Warren 18, Sanders 17, Harris 13, Buttigieg 13
MODERATE/CONSERVATIVE: Biden 36, Sanders 13, Harris 12, Buttigieg 9, Warren 5
there’s no region of the state where Harris leads, and her strongest region is the central valley. biden leads in LA county, orange/sandiego, other socal, and the central valley; warren leads in the bay area; sanders leads in other norcal.
biden leads among people 50+, sanders leads with fortysomethings and twentysomethings, warren leads with thirtysomethings.
among african-americans, biden leads with 34%, Warren at 32% and Harris and Buttigieg at 14%. that number will probably change after last night.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/28/2019 @ 12:14 pmhow can warren be considered more to the left of sanders, that’s unpossible,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/28/2019 @ 12:22 pmnarciso: the numbers mean that californians who describe themselves as very liberal are more likely to support warren than sanders.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/28/2019 @ 12:23 pm15. 16.
Warren is actually more Socialist than Sanders. She wants a wealth tax. Also is less practical.
Sammy Finkelman (385c0e) — 6/28/2019 @ 1:15 pm13. We’re talking about polling results, not a future’s market for the nomination, but still, being from Caiforniaa should help her in polls.
Sammy Finkelman (385c0e) — 6/28/2019 @ 1:18 pmIts odd that Harris would have support in the central valley, which is the only sensible
Narciso (30eb7e) — 6/28/2019 @ 1:20 pmSO, are union members going to e exempt from the draconian taxation required for everyone to pay everyone else’s medical bills?
Unasked: Will current Medicare recipients be allows to keep their current Medicare plans?
Kevin M (61459c) — 6/28/2019 @ 3:25 pmNarciso:
(1) we’re talking about the democrats in the central valley, who are largely either (a) clustered in sacramento, davis, and chico, (b) bay area refugees who moved into the central valley to buy a home but who commute into the bay area and have significant cultural ties there, or (c) hispanic.
(2) in 2016, harris carried all of the central valley counties except fresno, madera, and glenn.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/28/2019 @ 3:51 pm