Kamala Harris vows to extend key health reforms to all in US
Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled her economic agenda at a rally on Friday, with a pledge to widen healthcare reforms introduced by President Joe Biden, including Medicare negotiations and a cap on out-of-pocket costs.
In a message to the pharma industry, the Democratic Presidential nominee vowed that Medicare's negotiation powers and the cap on personal costs would continue and would eventually be extended to all Americans, not just those in the federal scheme for people aged 65 and over.
"We announced that we are lowering the price by up to 80% for 10 more lifesaving drugs, and I pledge to continue this progress," Harris said during the event in Raleigh, North Carolina. Another 15 medicines are due to be selected for price negotiations by February 2025.
"I'll lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone […] not only our seniors, and demand transparency from the middlemen who operate between Big Pharma and the insurance companies who use opaque practices to raise your drug prices and profit off your need for medicine."
The plan calls for "cracking down on pharmaceutical companies who block competition and abusive practices by pharmaceutical middlemen," according to campaign literature.
In a fact sheet, the Harris campaign also highlighted that drugmakers that increase prices faster than inflation now have to pay a rebate to Medicare "which is translating into lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors," and the achievements of the Affordable Care Act which saw 21 million new signups for ACA coverage this year.
"As for Donald Trump, well, he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which 45 million Americans rely on," she asserted.
Trump has said he no longer plans to repeal the Act, but instead would reform it to make improvements.
Medical debt cancellation
Another headline from the campaign pledges was a plan to cancel billions of dollars in medical debt if Harris beats Donald Trump to the White House this autumn. That is an extension of an announcement earlier this year that medical debt would no longer be used against credit scores, and follows a similar programme to write off student loans.
The plan would involve using federal funds to purchase medical debt from health providers, and then cancelling it, according to a Washington Post report.
"I will work as president with states like here in North Carolina […] to cancel medical debt for more and more millions [of] Americans," said Harris, alluding to a plan introduced by the state governor Roy Cooper that was approved last month.
