Kamala Harris is open to compromise on private insurers' role during 'Medicare for all' push

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

By stating she would eliminate private insurers as a necessary part of implementing "Medicare-for-all," California Sen. Kamala Harris during a CNN town hall Monday night sent a shockwave through the national health care debate.

Harris' comments underscored the extent to which a move to single payer would radically overhaul the current system and, in frankly addressing one of the transition's most politically difficult steps, stepped directly into her critics' crosshairs.

Republicans attacked Harris within minutes of her remarks, tweeting that she "says she wants to eliminate private insurance even if you like your plan." By Tuesday morning, former Starbucks boss Howard Schultz was piling on and fellow billionaire potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, was dismissing the entire plan as a fiscally ruinous pipe dream.

As the furor grew, a Harris adviser on Tuesday signaled that the candidate would also be open to the more moderate health reform plans, which would preserve the industry, being floated by other congressional Democrats. It represents a compromise position that risks angering "Medicare-for-all" proponents, who view eliminating private health insurance as key to enacting their comprehensive reform.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/politics/kamala-harris-medicare-for-all-eliminate-private-insurers-backlash/index.html