番茄社区

President Biden ended his campaign for re-election on Sunday, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket. 番茄社区 took a look at Harris's views on a range of health policy issues, from abortion to healthcare reform to Medicare solvency.

Abortion, Reproductive Rights

Believed to be the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic, both advocates and critics agree that Harris has not shied away from her support of reproductive rights.

In January, she kicked off her , during which she hosted events in multiple states that highlighted the harms of abortion bans alongside the women impacted by them, and called on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade.

In contrast, President Biden said during a that because of his Catholic faith, "I'm not big on abortion. But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right."

Emily Gee, PhD, senior vice president for inclusive growth at the Center for American Progress Action Fund in Washington, D.C., anticipates that abortion will be central to Harris's campaign.

"The fact that she is a woman who takes that issue very seriously will be galvanizing," Gee told 番茄社区.

Recalling Harris's grilling of during his Senate confirmation hearing, she added, "I think she does a good job of drawing the contrast and the contradiction [to highlight] how the far right is treating women differently and taking away their rights and giving them less bodily autonomy than others."

On the other side, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, blasted Harris as Biden's choice for the Democratic presidential candidate.

"Harris is so committed to abortion that she can't see anything else -- including the developmental stages of children before birth or the real needs of women," Dannenfelser said in a . "Questioned several times on national television, Harris refused to name a single limit on abortion she supports."

"While Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it," she noted.

Healthcare Reform, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare

On issues of access to healthcare, Gee said of Harris, "I think she's someone who really does care about the little guy and wants to make sure that people can afford the care they need."

Harris has been criticized for vacillating on a "Medicare for All" program during her 2020 presidential campaign. She was among the first well-known Democrats to throw her support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) proposal in 2017. However, during the Democratic primary, Harris from Sanders's camp and introduced "" which maintained her support for universal healthcare while preserving access to private insurance.

"I see broadly in that approach an attempt to lay out a North Star for where we need to go with coverage ... but building around an awareness that we have the system that we have," Gee said.

Harris is also a staunch defender of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Gee added.

As California's attorney general, Harris signed amicus briefs that , and urged the Supreme Court not to invalidate the law entirely if it was determined that the individual mandate was unconstitutional.

"It really is going to be this question of, 'Do you believe in going backwards and repealing the ACA and bringing back discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions?'" Gee said. "Or do you believe in protecting [people] and trying to make sure that people don't wind up with medical debt because they happen to get cancer, or got in a car accident?"

Brian Blase, PhD, president of the conservative Paragon Health Institute in Washington, D.C., argued that Harris needs to be able to explain her support for a plan under which all Americans receive coverage through the federal government and private health insurance coverage is ultimately eliminated.

More specifically, Harris must explain how she would advance such an agenda as president, Blase said in an email to 番茄社区.

"That agenda is in stark contrast to the congressional Democrats' focus the past 4 years of increasing subsidies to health insurance companies in order to prop up Obamacare," he wrote. "If Vice President Harris supports 'Medicare for All' and eliminating private coverage, endorsing more subsidies for health insurers through Obamacare is completely inconsistent with that."

Medicare funds are expected to run out in the mid-2030s, according to experts. President Biden's who earn more than $400,000 annually to help keep Medicare solvent.

According to the White House, that plan would extend the life of the Medicare trust fund for another quarter-century by "closing loopholes in existing Medicare taxes," while lowering beneficiaries' costs. The Biden administration also to "any proposal to cut benefits."

Lowering Drug Prices

Gee said she anticipates that Harris would continue to defend the Biden administration's record in standing up to Big Pharma and negotiating lower prescription drug prices.

She also expects Harris to continue to advocate for lowering costs for Americans outside of Medicare, including extending the $35 monthly cap on insulin, out-of-pocket cost protections, and drug price negotiations.

In 2019, Harris's plan to included giving the HHS Secretary the ability to set a maximum price for all drugs sold nationally based on drug prices in other developed countries. In addition, Harris backed "march-in rights," a controversial provision of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 that gives the government the authority, under certain circumstances, to assert control of a drug patent and license it to another company if the drug was developed with government support.

In keeping with those views, the Biden-Harris administration proposed a framework in 2023 making clear that a drug's high price, on its own, is enough to trigger march-in rights.

As California's attorney general, Harris also fought to make sure patients and consumers were protected as large healthcare systems consolidated, gaining market power and raising premiums, Gee said. Of note, Harris "laid the foundation" for a against Sutter Health, a large hospital system in Northern California.

The vice president also won other multimillion-dollar settlements from established healthcare groups, , following whistleblower lawsuits.

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