CAMEL HARRIS: OUR NEXT PRESIDENT?

Kamala's national health service: Harris says America should ABOLISH private health insurance and 'move on' to government-run 'Medicare for all'

By David Martosko

Daily Mail
January 29, 2019

California Sen. Kamala Harris carved out a liberal position on medical insurance on Monday night, telling an audience of Iowa Democrats that the United States should 'eliminate' all private plans and move everyone to a single-payer system.

'We need to have Medicare for all. That's just the bottom line,' Harris said during a CNN town hall event, declaring that she feels 'very strongly' about it.

'The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require,' she explained, concluding that private insurers should not be part of the system.

'Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on,' said Harris.

Republicans were quick to mock what they typically call socialized medicine, something that has become more mainstream in the Democratic party since the early part of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle.

GOP spokesman Michael Ahrens tweeted a dig at Harris that also doubled as a jab at former president Barack Obama's frequent promises about his namesake health law.

'Dems in 2009: If you like your plan, you can keep it,' Ahrens mocked. 'Dems in 2019: If you like your plan, we're eliminating it.'

Harris also defended other positions she took as California's attorney general that are unpopular with some Democrats, saying at the Drake University event in Des Moines that they reflected her duty as the state's top law enforcement officer.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked her about prosecuting death penalty cases, and about legislation requiring her office to investigate all fatal police-related shootings.

Harris, who was attorney general from 2011 until she became a U.S. senator in 2017, said she enforced the death penalty despite opposing it.

'It's a flawed system. It is applied unequally based on race and based on income,' she said in reply to one student questioner.

Harris said she chose not to take a public position on the fatal shootings legislation in 2015 because her office would write the law and enforce it. She did say at the time, however, that she did not support the notion of superseding local prosecutors.

Fatal shootings by police of unarmed black men have become a rallying point among a swath of Democratic-leaning voters.

Harris has faced scrutiny of her background as a prosecutor early in the 2020 presidential discussion. The town hall Monday night was her first public event in Iowa - the state will host the first presidential caucuses of the primary season - since she declared her candidacy.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who have taken steps toward presidential bids of their own, also have been confronted with questions about their political liabilities during appearances in Iowa this month.

The 'Medicare for all' concept has caught fire this year thanks to unabashed advocacy from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a delf-described democratic socialist.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was the plan's loudest proponent in 2016 but lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton who was seen as more centrist and electable.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I wonder what our doctors would do if Camel’s plan came to pass? The can’t up and leave for Canada because the Canadians already have socialized medicine. And for the same reason they can’t go to Europe.

And Camel’s plan would force big pharma to lower the price of drugs to where they will cost the same as in Canada and Mexico.