Though it's a distant memory now, Donald Trump publicly supported single-payer health care, as did Vice President Kamala Harris. Neither candidate currently supports the idea. Despite this easily identifiable history, Trump on Thursday attacked Harris as if she still supported single-payer health care, arguing that it would be wrong to do so.
During a lengthy news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said of Harris: “She's co-sponsoring legislation that would eliminate the incredibly popular private health insurance that 150 million Americans rely on, forcing everyone onto a terrible socialist government-run health care system with rationing and deadly wait times, and dramatically raising taxes. She's trying to take away private health care for the American people.”
“This is the best health care system in the world,” he continued, before adding, “You're going to be thrown into a communist system… You're going to be thrown into a system where everyone has health care.”
None of this is true. Harris previously supported abolishing private health insurance and establishing “Medicare for All,” a universal health insurance system, but has since backtracked. Harris has yet to propose a health insurance plan, but a spokesman recently told NBC News, “The Vice President will not be pushing for a single-payer system as president.”
The U.S. health care system is exceptional, but not because it offers the best care in the world. Americans pay far more for health care than residents of other high-income countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, yet have the worst health outcomes. U.S. life expectancy is lower, and infant mortality, maternal mortality, and preventable deaths are all higher.
Although a Medicare for All system would increase taxes, studies show that Americans would save money overall. Currently, more than 8% of Americans are uninsured, and tens of millions are underinsured, meaning they have insurance but cannot afford the medical services they need. Financially, not getting care ultimately translates into higher medical costs. Insurance companies also frequently deny treatment to patients in order to inflate their profits.
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Trump argued on Thursday that if the US had universal health care, “you'd have to wait 10, 12, 11 months to see a doctor. If you look at how these systems work in other countries, it's disgraceful.”
Waiting times in the U.S. are already long, and while they're not the worst among wealthy countries, they're still bad.
At the end of his health care rant, Trump reiterated that Harris “might change her position.” “She's changed on everything,” he said.
Same with Trump: A few years ago, he was a staunch supporter of single-payer health care.
“If you can't treat sick people here at home, give up. That's it. I mean, it's no good. That's why I'm a very liberal on health care,” Trump told Larry King in 1999. “I believe in universal health care. I believe in doing whatever it takes to make people healthy and better.”
He added that healthcare should be seen as a “right.”
In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote that the US should “reconsider single-payer, as many states have done.” He wrote favorably about Canada's single-payer system: “America's administrative costs account for 25 percent of health care costs, which is 2.5 times higher than Canada's. As in Canada, doctors may be paid less than they are now, but they would be able to treat more patients because they would do less administrative work. The Canadian system has also helped Canadians live longer and healthier lives than Americans.”
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Trump did not support single-payer health care during the 2016 campaign but still defended the idea during Republican debates.
“In terms of single-payer, it's worked well in Canada,” he said. “It's worked remarkably well in Scotland. It might have worked better in a different era.”
