Harris campaign says she will not push 'Medicare-for-all' plan despite previous support

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Kamala Harris' 'Medicare-for-all' solution is wrong: Art Laffer

Former Reagan economist Art Laffer and Fox News contributor Robert Wolf debate Kamala Harris' 'Medicare-for-all' plan on 'America Reports.'

Vice President Harris appears to be singing a different tune when it comes to ensuring "Medicare-for-all," compared to when she ran for president in 2019.

A campaign official told Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy that Harris will not push the subject of single-payer or "Medicare-for-all" this go around, as she seeks her first term as commander-in-chief.

In 2019, Fox News spoke to Harris in the hallways of Capitol Hill, asking about her plans for providing health care.

"How important is it to your health care plan to get rid of private insurance companies? Because there is some confusion about that," Doocy asked Harris on Jan. 30, 2019.

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Vice President Kamala Harris's camp says she does not plan to run on "Medicare-for-all." (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)

"I’m glad you asked. Yeah. So, the bottom line and the most important is that everyone have access to health care," Harris said. "That is the goal. That is the purpose for me supporting the policy of ‘Medicare-for-all.’

"If Congress votes in a way that reflects the values and desires of the American people, then Congress will vote for a policy that gives everyone access to health care," she later said.

On July 29, 2019, Harris published a piece on her campaign website about her plan to provide "Medicare-for-all."

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According to the Harris campaign, "Medicare-for-all" won't be pushed. (iStock)

She wrote, "There is perhaps no more complicated or more personal issue for Americans than health care." Harris also wrote that the American health care system is "a patchwork of plans, providers and costs" that frustrates people and leaves them powerless against the insurance companies in charge.

Her proposed solution was to provide "Medicare-for-all" because "Medicare works" and "it’s popular."

"'Medicare-for-all' will cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health, and substance-use disorder treatment, and comprehensive reproductive health care services," Harris wrote. "It will also allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices."

But her plan in July was different from what she proposed in January that year, because it would allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans to their clients.

In an interview with The Hill in October 2019, Harris said she knew she would be called "a flip-flopper" after she backed away from her initial support of "Medicare-for-all," and developed her own health care plan.

Her plan in January 2019 called on eliminating private insurance. Then in July 2019, she chose to include a role for private insurance companies to privately administer Medicare plans, though under strict rules.

Even in 2017, Harris backed a single-payer plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed a single-payer health care plan in 2019.  (Screenshot/CBS/LateNightStephenColbert)

Harris told constituents at a town hall in Oakland on Aug. 30, 2017, that she planned to co-sponsor Sanders’ forthcoming "Medicare-for-all" bill, explaining that it was "just the right thing to do."

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"It’s not just about what is morally and ethically right. It also makes sense from a fiscal standpoint," Harris said at the time.

Harris had previously stated that she supported the single-payer system as a "concept," but that lawmakers needed to "work out the details." Her announcement to co-sponsor Sanders’ bill was the first time she had publicly supported a single-payer plan.

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Under this European-style health care system, the government is solely responsible for covering health care costs. Sanders rolled out an earlier version of his proposal during the Democratic presidential primaries in 2016.

The plan was first estimated to cost $13.8 trillion over the first 10 years, but that ballooned to $32 trillion and required an average annual tax increase of $24,000 per household.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.