What Kamala Harris’ candidacy would mean for health care

politicopro.com

July 22, 2024 4:37 pm

Vice President Kamala Harris will seek the Democratic nod to replace President Joe Biden, and her candidacy could mean a sea change for health policy.

The former senator and attorney general of California has, over the years, staked out positions to the left of President Joe Biden on a range of health issues — from abortion rights to insurance coverage to drug pricing. Yet she has also proven malleable, not fitting neatly into either the progressive or moderate wings of the party.

As she seeks the White House, here is what you need to know.

Reproductive rights

Long a vocal abortion-rights advocate, Harris released a plan when she was running for president in 2020 to set up federal protections similar to the Voting Rights Act.

Under her proposed system, states that have a record of curtailing abortion rights would have to seek preclearance from the Justice Department before enacting new laws affecting access to the procedure. Those laws would be legally unenforceable without preclearance from the federal agency.

President Joe Biden has said a top priority in his second term would be to pass federal legislation restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade. 

Both Biden’s and Harris’ plans would face near-insurmountable odds in Congress. And Harris’ plan would almost certainly face court challenges. The court struck down the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance mechanism in 2013 and overturned the federal protections of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Still, abortion-rights advocates see Harris as one of their staunchest champions, pointing to her votes in the Senate against abortion restrictions, her fight as California attorney general against a group that recorded sting videos at Planned Parenthood clinics, and her work highlighting the issue as vice president.

Medicare for All

Harris and Biden famously clashed during the 2020 primary over his record on desegregation and his past collaboration with hardline conservative senators, but the two also got into heated arguments in debates over how to steer the country toward universal health coverage.

Harris both signed onto Sen. Bernie SandersMedicare for All bill — which would eliminate private insurance and transfer everyone to a single-payer, government-run program — and introduced her own competing plan that would allow private plans to compete with public ones. She also co-sponsored an array of more modest alternatives, including making it possible for more people to opt in to either Medicare or Medicaid. Harris’ all-of-the-above approach drew criticism from her primary rivals, including Sanders and Biden, with some accusing her of going too far, others not far enough, and still others as inconsistent and untrustworthy.

Biden’s campaign, which was then pushing a plan to expand Obamacare to include a public option, said Harris’ “have-it-every-which-way approach” showed “a refusal to be straight with the American middle class.” By the time the two eventually teamed up, the Covid-19 pandemic had overtaken all other health policy discussions. And since taking office, their administration has stuck with Biden’s preferred approach of shoring up and expanding the Affordable Care Act.

Cost of care

In her seven years as California attorney general, Harris repeatedly used legal tools to try to bring down the cost of health care, tackling anticompetitive behavior in the hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical industries. She also won multimillion-dollar settlements from major health care corporations like Quest Diagnostics and McKesson after whistleblowers filed lawsuits claiming fraud in the state’s Medicaid program.

This record signals an interest not only in defending and building on the drug price negotiation framework enacted by Biden but also using antitrust laws more aggressively to tackle consolidation in the health care sector.