August 26 2019, 12:23 p.m.
BEFORE DISTANCING HERSELF from
Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All campaign, Kamala Harris repeatedly
boasted her support for the legislation in Facebook ads, in an effort to grow
her list of supporters. Earlier this month, Harris backed away from Medicare
for All during a private event in the Hamptons, telling a crowd
of large-dollar donors that she had “not been comfortable with
Bernie’s plan,” Bloomberg reported.
“I was proud to be the first
Senate Democrat to come out in support of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All
bill,” the ad, which ran from August 2 to August 7, 2018, and prompted Facebook
users to share their email addresses with the campaign, read. “It is absurd
that we are the only major industrialized nation in the world not to guarantee
health care to all people. Add your name if you agree it’s time for Medicare
for All.”
Harris told attendees at the
fundraiser that her plan would preserve private insurance, distancing herself
from Sanders’s plan, which she was the first senator to co-sponsor in 2017.
In April 2019, her campaign
ran a flurry
of ads saying she was “proud to be an original co-sponsor of the Medicare
for All bill in the Senate.”
In January, she ran a
sponsored campaign via Daily Kos asking the site’s readers to sign a petition —
one that would have them join her own email list — calling for Medicare for
All. “Every single person living in our country should have access to
high-quality, meaningful, affordable health care, from birth on up. That’s why
I’m proud to co-sponsor the Medicare for All Act in the
Senate,” she wrote in an email to the site’s users, linking to a petition that
has since been removed and putting her support of Sanders’s
bill in bold. “Not only is it smart for taxpayers — it’s morally the
right thing to do. We have the power to make Medicare for All a
reality in our country, but only if we come together and make our voices
heard.”
In September 2017, in a
similar petition, she named Sanders specifically while asking people to back
her decision to co-sponsor his bill. She said that the U.S. “is stronger when
everyone has access to affordable health care at every stage of their life,
from birth on up. It’s for that reason I announced this week at our
town hall that I intend to co-sponsor Senator Bernie Sanders’ Medicare–for–All legislation. I’m Senator Kamala Harris and I’m asking for your
support…Sign here to join me as a citizen co-sponsor of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare–for–All legislation
today.” It, too, is no longer up.
In August 2018, the campaign
for the former prosecutor and junior senator from California ran at least six
sponsored ads that reached Facebook users in states across the country. At
least half of those were specifically targeted to California. The ads reached
about 6,000 Facebook users, according to data available
from Facebook. The ad called for Facebook users to add their names and email
addresses to a petitionsupporting
Medicare for All, expanding the campaign’s email list — a key fundraising tool.
In 2018, Harris’s Senate
campaign ran ads with fundraising
pitches linked to her support for Medicare for All. “Every
donation you make keeps me off the phones and focused on fighting for things
like Medicare for All, DACA, and bail reform in the U.S. Senate,” one ad read.
DESPITE HER STATEMENT at
the donor event — which was hosted by movie executive Jamie Patricof and
his wife Kelly — Harris remains a sponsor of Sanders’s bill, the Medicare
for All Act of 2017. She has also spoken directly in support
of single payer in recent years.
The recent comments, however,
marked at least the second time that Harris walked back her support for
universal health care since she launched her presidential campaign in January.
During the first round of Democratic debates in June, Harris raised her hand
when NBC moderators asked the candidates if they would eliminate private
insurance. The next day, however, Harris told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she
didn’t think private insurance should be eliminated and that she had
misunderstood the question.
Ahead of the second round of
presidential debates in July, Harris rolled out her own plan, “KamalaCare.”
The plan seeks to achieve universal health care over the next 10 years by
expanding Medicare with the help
of private insurers, a strategy for which the Trump administration has also
expressed support.
Though Harris’s plan uses the term “Medicare for All” throughout, it preserves
and promotes the role of private insurers, a stark contrast from Sanders’s
bill, which provides for an entirely publicly funded system.
After news of her comments at
the Hamptons fundraiser were reported last week, Sanders and members of his
team swiped back at Harris on Twitter. “Promises to big donors in the Hamptons
don’t stay in the Hamptons,” Sanders speechwriter David Sirota wrote.
Harris’s campaign spokesperson Ian Sams responded,
“She has her own health care plan. So yeah, not a secret she isn’t running on
Bernie’s plan anymore. Sorry, David.”
Later in the day,
Sanders posted a
tweet taking a stab at his opponent.
I don't go to the Hamptons to
raise money from billionaires. If I ever visited there, I would tell them the
same thing I have said for the last 30 years: We must pass a Medicare for All
system to guarantee affordable health care for all, not just for those who can
afford it.
The Harris campaign did not
respond to requests for comment. Earlier this month, Sams told the
Daily Beast, “There’s a difference between signing onto a good idea and running
on a plan,” in reference to the contrast between Harris’s 2017 support for
single payer and the comments she made to donors.
No comments:
Post a Comment