On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris disclosed her economic strategy, emphasizing the expansion of the Biden administration’s health care achievements. Addressing a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris pledged to extend Medicare negotiations beyond current beneficiaries to include all Americans.
“We’ve just announced a reduction of up to 80 percent in the price of 10 additional lifesaving drugs, and I promise to build on this progress,” Harris declared. She also committed to reducing the cost of insulin and prescription medications for everyone, not just seniors, and called for greater transparency from intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and insurers.
Harris highlighted President Biden’s success in Medicare negotiations and insulin cost reductions as cornerstones of his health care agenda. She also drew on her previous role as California’s attorney general, where she targeted companies that unlawfully raised medication prices.
Earlier this year, the administration, with Harris leading the charge, announced a plan to exclude medical debt from credit reports. Harris reiterated her goal to eliminate medical debt completely, working with state leaders like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, whose debt relief plan was recently approved.
Harris positioned herself firmly against former President Trump, warning that his policies could undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicare. “Trump wants to repeal the ACA, which 45 million Americans depend on, taking us back to a time when insurance companies could deny coverage for pre-existing conditions,” Harris stated. She criticized Trump’s past efforts to cut Medicare and his proposed agenda to reverse recent progress on prescription drug costs.
In response, Trump criticized Harris’s health care plans, accusing her of pushing for a “communist system” that would eliminate private health insurance. “Her approach would lead to a government-run health care system with long wait times and higher taxes,” Trump said, dismissing her proposals as detrimental to private health care options.