Sen. Bernard Sanders on Monday said the new health care plan Sen. Kamala D. Harris offered is not “Medicare for All.”

Mr. Sanders of Vermont prefaced his answer by saying he likes Ms. Harris of California, calling her a “friend.”

“But her plan is not Medicare for All,” he said on CNN.

“What Medicare for All understands is that health care is a human right and that the function of a sane health care system is not to make sure that insurance companies and drug companies make tens of billions of dollars in profits,” Mr. Sanders said.

He said private insurance companies may be “greedy,” “but they’re not stupid.”

Mr. Sanders said their function is not to provide quality care, but “to deny claims when they can” and “to make as much money as they possibly can.”

Ms. Harris released what her campaign called a Medicare for All plan on Monday to move toward universal health coverage in the U.S. Unlike Mr. Sanders‘ plan, it envisions a role for private insurance companies, as long as they meet Medicare standards in terms of cost and coverage.

Mr. Sanders won’t be on the same debate stage as Ms. Harris this week in Detroit. He will participate on Tuesday, and Ms. Harris will get her turn on Wednesday.

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