Kamala Harris’s Phony Medicare for All Plan
Kamala Harris has long claimed to be a supporter of Medicare for All. But the rollout of her new health-care plan finally gives us clarity: she will fight on behalf of insurance companies, not against them.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris participates in a Presidential Candidates Forum at the NAACP 110th National Convention on July 24, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Bill Pugliano / Getty Images
Kamala Harris has long said she supports Medicare for All. It’s now clearer than ever that she really wants anything but.
Her new health-care plan — which steals the name of Bernie Sanders’s popular single-payer bill despite looking nothing like it — is a slap in the face to single-payer supporters. Phased in over ten years, the plan ultimately expands the role of private insurers in Medicare by massively increasing the number of private Medicare Advantage plans sold.
In her Medium post about the proposal, Harris describes the US health-care system as a “patchwork of plans, providers and costs that have left people frustrated” and says we need to “finally fix this broken system for good.” But her plan — KamalaCare, for lack of a better name — does no such thing. Instead, it reinforces our patchwork system by ensuring private plans can operate within and around Medicare in perpetuity.