If you ask the Democratic candidates for president who is to blame for Americans’ health-care predicament, they swiftly jab their fingers at health-insurance companies. Sure, pharmaceutical companies have received some mention (mostly negative) in the Democratic debates, but so far, insurance companies have been painted as greedy money-grubbers that just don’t want Americans to have health care.
Tonight, Senator Kamala Harris blamed insurance companies for Americans going bankrupt. “Insurance companies have been jacking up the prices for far too long,” she said. “American families have [been] held down by deductibles and co-pays and premiums that can cause them bankruptcy.”
Read: Americans are going bankrupt from getting sick
Last night, Senator Elizabeth Warren said, “The basic profit model of an insurance company is taking as much money as you can in premiums and pay out as little as possible in health-care coverage.”
In last month’s debate, Mayor Bill De Blasio said, “Private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans when you talk about the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand blamed “the greed of the insurance companies and the drug companies,” and Senator Bernie Sanders proclaimed, “The function of the health-care system today is to make billions in profits for the insurance companies.”