Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., will co-sponsor Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' single-payer healthcare bill, The Hill reported Wednesday.
"I intend to co-sponsor the 'Medicare for All' bill because it's just the right thing to do," she said at a town hall in Oakland, California, to a crowd of about 700 people. "It's not just about what is morally and ethically right, it also makes sense just from a fiscal standpoint."
Harris is the first Democrat to announce she will co-sponsor the bill. Sanders, an Independent who touted a Medicare for All plan when he was running for president in 2016, will introduce the bill in September. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have announced their support for single-payer health insurance.
In a single-payer system, the government covers all Americans through one big plan. Harris' support confirms the bill's status as moving much closer to the Democratic Party mainstream.
"This is about understanding, again, that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege, and it's also about being smart," Harris said. "It is so much better that people have meaningful access to affordable healthcare at every stage of life, from birth on, because the alternative is that we as taxpayers otherwise are paying huge amounts of money for them to get their healthcare in an emergency room.
"So, it's not only about what is morally and ethically right, it also makes sense from a fiscal standpoint – or if you want to talk about it as a return on investment – for taxpayers."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.