Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris addresses the audience during the Presidential candidate forum at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in Detroit, July 24, 2019. Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Sen. Kamala Harris released a health-care plan on Monday that will transition every American into her version of a "Medicare for All" system within 10 years. The plan, which will allow private insurers to remain if they follow new rules, comes before the second Democratic debates in Detroit this week. The plan does not go as far or as fast as the one proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, which Harris has co-sponsored in the Senate. But it positions Harris to the left of moderate front-runner Joe Biden, a former vice president, by guaranteeing coverage to all Americans. And it clears up the California senator's previously muddled position on the role for private insurance. Read more: Here are the top business issues in the second 2020 Democratic debate

Harris' plan also rules out a tax on the middle class that Sanders has said could be an option to finance his proposal. Sanders has proposed a 4% income-based premium on households earning more than $29,000 as one way to fund his plan. Harris' plan raises the earnings threshold to $100,000. Both senators have also proposed new taxes on stock, bond and derivatives transactions. "Medicare works. It's popular. Seniors transition into it every day, and people keep their doctors and get care at a lower cost. Let's not lose sight that we have a Medicare system that's already working," Harris wrote in the plan, which was posted to the blogging platform Medium. "Now, let's expand it to all Americans and give everyone access to comprehensive health care." The Biden campaign released a statement later on Monday that slammed Harris's proposal as a "have-it-every-which-way approach" that backtracked on her previous support of the Sanders plan. Despite Harris's claims, the plan would require a "large tax increase" on the middle class, the campaign said. Sanders' campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement that "you can't call this plan Medicare for All." "Folding to the interests of the health insurance industry is both bad policy and bad politics. This plan is centered around privatizing Medicare, enriching insurance executives and introducing more corporate greed and profiteering into the Medicare system," Shakir said.

Harris would cover mental health, dental

Harris wrote that her plan will provide new benefits that are not currently covered by Medicare, the government program that provides health insurance to Americans 65 and older. "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," she wrote. Individuals will have the opportunity to buy into Medicare immediately. Other parts of the plan will be incorporated during a 10-year transition period. In that period, newborns and the uninsured will be automatically enrolled, while "employers, employees, the underinsured, and others on federally-designated programs, such as Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act exchanges" will transition. In comparison, the transition period proposed by Sanders is four years. Harris wrote that the longer transition period will lower the overall cost of the program. Kate Bedingfield, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said in a statement that the 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."

Private insurers will face new standards