Kamala Harris Backtracks on Abolishing Private Health Insurance

“said she misunderstood the question and believed it was about whether she, personally, would give up her private plan in favor of Medicare”

During the second Democrat debate on Thursday night, the candidates were asked to raise their hand if their plan for healthcare would eliminate private health insurance in favor of a government-run option. Harris raised her hand.

Now she is claiming that she misheard the question.

Kamala Harris says she misinterpreted question on abolishing private insurance California Sen. Kamala Harris said Friday that she misinterpreted a question about abolishing private health insurance at Thursday night’s 2020 Democratic debate, despite the fact that she raised her hand when asked if she would eliminate it. NBC’s Lester Holt asked for the 10 candidates on stage to raise their hands if their health care plans would “abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Harris were the only two candidates who put their hands up, but Harris said Friday she does not support getting rid of all private insurance. The California Democrat said she misunderstood the question and believed it was about whether she, personally, would give up her private plan in favor of Medicare. “So, the question was would you be willing to give up your private insurance,” Harris said on “CBS This Morning.” When a host pointed out that is not how it was asked, Harris said, “That is certainly what I heard.” “I am supportive of a Medicare for All policy, and under a Medicare for All policy, private insurance would certainly exist for supplemental coverage,” she added on CBS. Harris later told MSNBC that she does not support abolishing private insurance. “No, I do not,” she said. “The question was would you give up your private insurance for that option and I said yes,” she noted, continuing with her answer about supplemental care.

This video is cued to begin at the 5:06 mark. Just press play:

This directly contradicts what Harris said on this topic during a CNN town hall event in January.

Kamala Harris gambles that kicking 177 million people off of their private insurance is good politics When a few million people stood to lose insurance that they liked under former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, it created one of the biggest political crises of his presidency. Now five years later, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a leading presidential candidate, is openly calling for getting rid of private insurance, which currently covers 177 million people. Have politics changed that drastically in just a half of a decade? Harris made the comments during a CNN town hall style interview in response to a question from Jake Tapper, who pressed her on what her support for national healthcare, which she describes as “Medicare for all,” would mean for those who had private insurance that they liked. “Listen, 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 all the paperwork, all of the delay that may require,” Harris said. “Who of all us have not had that situation where you have to wait for approval and the doctor says, ‘I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this?'” She continued, “Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”

Someone at the Harris campaign must have looked at some very bad polling on this subject.

Source: Legalinsurrection.com

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