Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced that she intends to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) single-payer “Medicare-for-all” healthcare legislation at an Oakland town hall event on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Beebe Memorial Cathedral in her home town, Harris made the news near the end of the event in response to a question from someone who works at the non-profit Alameda Health Consortium.
She told the audience that she was going to “break some news” and said, “I intend to co-sponsor the Medicare-for-all bill because it’s just the right thing to do. It’s just the right thing to do.”
Harris laughed after making her announcement and said, “somebody should tell my staff.”
She added that she believes health care is a “right” and not a “privilege”
Harris may be positioning herself for a 2020 White House run, and her single-payer announcement is significant because she has taken considerable heat of late from Sanders’ supporters who think she is too beholden to big-money donors like Hillary Clinton and do not like the fact that she was once a prosecutor.
Sanders thanked Harris on Twitter, tweeting, “Let’s make health care a right, not a privilege.”