Harris cynically rediscovers Obamacare a month before Election Day
Remarkably, before his defenestration, Joe Biden had not made healthcare much of an issue in his re-election campaign. This seemed unusual. It was the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1992 race that the creation of national health insurance hadn’t emerged as a major campaign issue.
Biden’s relative silence on healthcare was all the more surprising given that he had long made healthcare a signature issue, as he did in the 2020 race. He talked about healthcare in his swan song speech at the Democratic Convention, but it came off as small-ball and tired.
There is a reason. His Cancer Moonshot had made no gains. A measly $150 million boost, announced at Tulane this summer isn’t going to change that. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing helping to power overall inflation. His endless promise of negotiating lower Medicare prices for drugs never made a dent in overall spending. Obamacare, despite promises of lowering costs, required Biden to pump nearly $100 million in subsidies last year to keep the program solvent.
The irony of dipping into the already shaky Medicare Trust Fund for these monies went unnoticed. Perhaps trying for a footnote in history, he turned to Jill to instruct the cabinet on issues related to women’s health.
His potential successor, Kamala Harris, seems hell-bent on differentiating herself from the man to whom she owes so much. Healthcare now looks to be the topic where she can put the most distance between Biden and herself. When it comes to healthcare, her campaign website offers more details than any other of her policy positions.
Not surprisingly, her plan looks like a carbon copy of the arguments made for Obamacare 14 years ago, with one exception.
Like Obamacare, it promises federally funded coverage for everyone. She doesn’t, however, offer the smokescreen of “If you like your insurance company, you can keep your insurance company.” Rather, Harris is ready to make war on insurance companies, completing Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) vision of socializing the means of production.
Sanders always sought to socialize much of the healthcare industry — extensively regulating hospitals and doctors to make them deliver only the scope of care and at prices deemed appropriate by the government. Pharmaceutical companies would fare even worse with the government regulating their profits and steering their research into new drugs.
To pay for her expanded vision of Obamacare she goes to the left of Sanders.
She adopts Sanders’s ideas of an income-based premium for the employer’s share of Medicare premiums, higher taxes on the top 1 percent, and taxing capital gains as ordinary income, Harris would additionally impose transaction taxes on stock and bond trades that would amount to $2 on every $1,000 involved. Welcome back to the inefficiencies of the pre-internet world of brokerage commissions.
One reason Harris is focused on promises related to healthcare is they distract from the policy train wrecks to which she is directly connected — the border, being the last person in the room when the Afghanistan withdrawal was decided, and plans to cripple the economy in the future with price controls.
In every case, Harris brings a deadly combination of progressive zeal, economic ignorance and complete managerial incompetence. From rising insurance costs and slowing drug development to declining public trust in faltering public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, the nation needs a leader who can push American healthcare into a better future.
Carl Schramm is a professor at Syracuse University and a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.
Date: |
Topics
-
Top stories - CBS News
Last CPI report before Election Day shows inflation rate at 2.4%
The latest Consumer Price Index report, the last that will be released before Election Day, showed inflation continued to cool in September. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger has more.47 minutes ago -
Top stories - ABC News
Trump outpaces Harris and Walz in campaign events as Election Day approaches
Donald Trump has single handedly outpaced both Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in campaign events for the month of September.1 hour ago - Donald Trump -
Top stories - ABC News
Harris campaign office in Arizona shot at for third time in a month, police say
An office shared by Kamala Harris' campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was again the target of gunfire.18 hours ago -
Business - The New York Times
The Trump-Harris Election Is Creating Anxiety on Wall Street
Among deal makers with fortunes at stake, the consequences of a Harris or a Trump win are increasingly murky.22 hours ago - Donald Trump -
Politics - NBC News
Harris' political operation crosses $1 billion raised for the 2024 election
Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign operation crossed the $1 billion fundraising threshold in September.23 hours ago -
World - Financial Times
Harris and Trump race to win over Latino voters as US election nears
Once-reliably Democratic section of the electorate has drifted to the Republican presidential candidate8 hours ago - Donald Trump -
Top stories - NBC News
Afghan national living in U.S. charged with plotting Election Day terrorist attack
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a resident of Oklahoma City, was charged with conspiring to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS on Election Day, according to federal prosecutors.Yesterday -
Politics - The Hill
Evening Report — Trump tours blue states on path to Election Day
{beacon} Evening Report © National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Milton set to make landfall HURRICANE MILTON will collide with Florida’s west coast sometime later tonight or ...20 hours ago - Donald Trump -
Politics - The Hill
Early voting kicks into high gear ahead of Election Day
Welcome to The Hill's Campaign newsletter {beacon} Campaign Report Campaign Report The Big Story Early voting kicks into high gear ahead of Election Day Candidates in the Nov. 5 elections are ...20 hours ago
More from The Hill
-
Politics - The Hill
Watch live: White House holds press briefing in wake of Hurricane Milton
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters Thursday in the wake of Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida. President Biden spoke to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ...43 minutes ago -
Politics - The Hill
The West, including Israel, should help Ukraine fight Russia in Syria
As Russian forces face mounting pressure across multiple fronts, it accelerates the process of Russia’s downfall, akin to death by a thousand cuts.43 minutes ago - Ukraine -
Politics - The Hill
Live updates: At least 4 dead, millions without power in aftermath of Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm along Florida's Gulf Coast, bringing powerful winds, a deadly storm surge, flooding, widespread power outages, and deaths.1 hour ago -
Politics - The Hill
House Democrats bet on small and fun events for minority outreach
The House Democratic campaign arm is increasingly relying on small, community-centric events for its get-out-the-vote efforts among voters of color, looking to increase interest with non-political ...1 hour ago -
Politics - The Hill
Trump’s tariffs would remake the economy, mostly for the worse
A tariff is just an indirect sales tax. It makes most goods more expensive. The effect is not just on foreign goods.1 hour ago