In May 2019, Kamala Harris made it crystal clear to CNN’s Jake Tapper that she sees no difference between American citizens and illegal immigrants when it comes to public benefits. Tapper asked about benefits for “people who are in this country illegally,” and Harris responded, “Let me just be very clear about this. I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”
Joe Biden’s stance on this issue is as clear as mud. During a debate, he raised his hand with all the other Democrats when Savannah Guthrie asked if their government plans would cover undocumented immigrants. His campaign later tried to backpedal, saying Biden only meant that undocumented immigrants could purchase health insurance through Obamacare. But last June, when asked specifically about Medicare and Medicaid, Biden said, “Look, I think that anyone who is in a situation where they are in need of health care, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for.”
Harris’s campaign didn’t exactly start on the right foot. In January, she told CNN she would eliminate private health insurance, a statement she later had to clarify. “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,” she 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.’ Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.” She later walked back, saying she meant cutting out bureaucracy and waste, not private insurance. Yet, during a Democratic debate on June 27, she and Bernie Sanders were the only ones who raised their hands to abolish private health insurance. The next day, she claimed she misunderstood the question.
The Democratic Party’s typical approach is to avoid directly eliminating private health insurance while setting the stage for its collapse indirectly. Enter the “public option” or the “Biden plan.” As Biden himself admitted in a New York Times interview, this plan would decimate private health insurers because no private company could compete with a federal system.
No, you don’t have the choice, but you had the choice to — that’s why — I’m not saying, I said, if you like your plan, you can keep it, assuming — I should add the obvious — if your employer doesn’t take it away from you. O.K.?
So, if you like your plan, you can keep it…unless it’s no longer available. Which it won’t be. But when private insurers go belly up, Democrats will point the finger at the companies they drove out of business.
