“Medicare for All” won’t endanger your relationship with your doctor, according to Kamala Harris.
Harris, a senator for California and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, echoed a promise made by former President Barack Obama about his signature healthcare legislation during an appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live late Wednesday.
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“People think, ‘Well, maybe is this going to mean that I need to, that I’ll have to worry about not being able to see my doctor,'” Harris told Kimmel. “Ninety-one percent of the doctors in America are in Medicare. And those that are not are mostly pediatricians, the 9%. And you know why they’re not in Medicare because Medicare doesn’t cover children. But when we have ‘Medicare for All’ that will not be any longer the case, which means that the vast majority of doctors will be in that system, and you can keep your doctor under that system.”
Obama and officials from his administration repeatedly said Obamacare wouldn’t affect plans should a patient prefer their existing coverage.
Harris continues to be grilled on her healthcare positions after making multiple contradictory statements about the role of private insurers should the “Medicare for All” proposal introduced this year in Congress become law. The former California attorney general, who is a co-sponsor of the measure, has twice said she supports the nixing of private insurance before later qualifying her comments.
She has also been pushed on how her hypothetical administration would pay for the changes after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the bill’s main advocate, said it would come with a tax increase.
“I’m not prepared to engage in a middle-class tax hike,” Harris told CNN this week.
Her remarks come after former Vice President Joe Biden last weekend said White House hopefuls other than Sanders had “so far not” been as forthright about the financial and coverage implications of the government-run, single-payer system.
