Sen. Kamala D. Harris said her “goal” is to enact a “Medicare for All” overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
The California Democrat has endorsed a single-payer system, and in an interview with MSNBC that aired Monday, she said, “Let’s not engage in a fiction that we aren’t supplying health care to everybody because we are — in the emergency room.”
Several of the candidates running for the 2020 presidential nomination have endorsed Medicare for All as they look to woo liberal activists in the early primary states.
Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont has led the push. He said his vision would lead to higher taxes on the middle-class, but that people would end up paying less because premiums and co-payments would be eliminated.
Ms. Harris, though, has maintained that she would not raise taxes on the middle-class, leaving some analysts to question her math.
She said the current health care system has put too many people on the edge of financial ruin.
“That is not an adequate health care system in America — it is not,” Ms. Harris said. “So that is why I propose that we as our goal have Medicare for All.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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