Health care is among the top issues Democratic voters want to see addressed, but any effort to reimagine the nation’s complex system invites blowback. | Carlos Osorio/AP Photo 2020 Elections Rivals unload on Kamala Harris’ health plan from left and right Bernie Sanders' and Joe Biden's campaigns immediately criticized the version of Medicare for All Harris released Monday.

Sen. Kamala Harris waded into the fight over the future of American health care on Monday morning — and promptly got pummeled by Democratic presidential rivals to her left and her right.

Officials with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign slammed Harris’ vision of “Medicare for All,” which includes a place for private insurers and would take a decade to phase in, as “terrible policy” and “terrible politics." Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign charged Harris with flip-flopping on her support for Sanders’ Medicare for All bill while still proposing a plan that would "unravel the hard-won Affordable Care Act that the Trump Administration is trying to undo right now.”


“This new, have-it-every-which-way approach pushes the extremely challenging implementation of the Medicare for All part of this plan ten years into the future, meaning it would not occur on the watch of even a two-term administration,” said Kate Bedingfield, a Biden deputy campaign manager. “The result? A Bernie Sanders-lite Medicare for All and a refusal to be straight with the American middle class, who would have a large tax increase forced on them with this plan.”

Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir, meanwhile, accused Harris of “walking away” from Medicare for All” and privatizing Medicare.

“Because you’ve got, in her mind, an introduction of even more insurance companies who can operate within the parameters of traditional Medicare,” Shakir said in an interview. “And that of course introduces more corporate greed and more profiteering within Medicare, and that only leads to bad outcomes. We know that.”

The spat, spanning the spectrum of the Democratic Party and coming on the eve of presidential primary debates in Detroit, underscores the central — and dangerous — role of health care in the 2020 presidential race. Health care is among the top issues Democratic voters want to see addressed, but any effort to reimagine the nation’s complex system invites blowback. Biden, Sanders and now Harris have all gone through it; among the top-polling candidates, only Elizabeth Warren has yet to offer her own health care plan, instead largely avoiding the skirmish by simply saying “I’m with Bernie” on health care when asked of late.

Under “KamalaCare,” Harris calls for building on an existing and popular government program, Medicare Advantage, over the 10-year implementation period — eventually allowing Americans to choose between the public plan and certified private Medicare plans to achieve universal coverage.

Medicare for All is exceedingly popular with the Democratic base, and polls show that a large majority of Americans support it — if given a choice between a government plan and private insurance. Far fewer Americans back a mandatory government health care plan for all.

Harris’ plan attempts to thread the needle between Sanders, who for years has pushed a single government-run plan as the most efficient way to lower costs, and Biden, who wants to preserve a role for private insurers while creating a government-run alternative.

Ian Sams, a spokesman for Harris, dismissed Shakir's charges about increased costs under Harris’ plan as “so factually inaccurate I don’t even know where to begin.”

“It seems like they need to read the plan. It puts in place strict requirements for any private insurance company who wants to offer a Medicare plan, including on cost, quality access and services,” Sams said. “It also requires that any private plan come in under the cost of Medicare.”

Added Sams: “We don’t need another voice misrepresenting Medicare for All.”

Harris’ campaign consulted with several former Obama administration officials, including former Cabinet secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who led the Department of Health and Human Services when Obamacare was implemented and cast Harris’ plan as “a smart way to get to ‘Medicare for All’ where all individuals and employers can transition smoothly into a system that covers everyone.”

But Shakir seized on Sebelius’ role on the board of a private insurer, Devoted Health, which sells Medicare Advantage plans.

“I like her. She’s been a good friend,” Shakir said. “However, it is true that she works for Medicare Advantage, who would stand to benefit from Kamala Harris’ plan. I think it’s important to take that into consideration.”

Sanders’ and Biden’s camps also took aim at the way in which Harris arrived at her plan, with Bedingfield pointing out that she was the first sponsor of Sanders’ signature single-payer health care bill after arriving in the Senate in 2017.

"It would be one thing if she started the campaign having introduced the plan, but when you start by saying you’re for Bernie’s ‘Medicare for All’ and start to walk away, gradually back down from it, it leads to concerns about how much of a president of conviction you would be,” Shakir said. “I’d also say it feels like [Harris’ plan] was cobbled together to address various poll numbers.”

Asked in Detroit about her evolution from Sanders’ bill to her own, Harris steered clear of engaging with the critiques of her rivals, saying she realized what was being offered was “not enough.”

Sams was a bit more direct in taking on Sanders’ own support for other plans.

“Just like the public-option plan that he has sponsored in the Senate, which largely leaves intact the private insurance option, we would welcome his support for her plan,” Sams said.