President Joe Biden‘s administration has centered around many issues, with student loan forgiveness at the top of the list.
During his presidency, Biden erased $170 billion in student debt for roughly five million Americans.
As the top Democratic contender, Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to continue Biden’s student loan forgiveness plans, and she has also come out with a proposal that would see medical debt erased for many Americans.
Harris has said she would like to use federal funds to clear medical debt from Americans that they face from their health providers, according to The Washington Post.
During her vice presidency, Harris worked with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to get rid of medical debt for two million North Carolinians. She also sought to end medical bills from being included on consumer credit reports alongside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that getting sick or taking care of loved ones should not mean financial hardship for American families,” the White House said in a statement in June.
“The burden of medical debt and its impact on credit reports inflicts serious financial repercussions on American families, restricting access to credit, increasing risk of bankruptcy, creating barriers to housing and health care access, and negatively impacting health outcomes. This debt is often placed on American families despite evidence of medical bills frequently being invalid, unsubstantiated, and inaccurate.”
Harris also said she would be in favor of preventing medical debt in the first place by protecting patients from debt collectors through charity care and restrictions on health care providers and third-party debt collectors.
Voters would likely see a similar initiative from Harris to Biden’s student loan forgiveness programs.
“We see a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt,” Harris said at a speech in Wisconsin last month.
So far, Harris has been a strong proponent of Biden’s SAVE plan, which operates as an income-driven repayment program to reduce payments or even enforce zero-dollar monthly fees.
But that income-driven repayment program has received legal pushback and awaits a decision by the Supreme Court over whether the federal government had the legal ability to pass the repayment option.
Also chief on Harris’s list of priorities if elected president are efforts to ban price gouging in grocery stores. The Democratic candidate also said she would implement a $6,000 child tax credit and down payment help for first-time homebuyers.
The Biden administration has already released the price-adjusted prescription costs for 10 drugs under Medicare.
Newsweek reached out to Harris for comment via email.
William F. Hall, a political science and business professor at Webster University, said Harris’s campaign is “superior” when it comes to focusing on key issues most important to middle-class voters.
Harris has also earned support among union workers in key swing states like Pennsylvania.
“The shift in labor Union member support toward Harris and away from Trump in Pennsylvania, in my view is a direct result of Harris’ campaign’s success in highlighting the forward-leaning and very supportive policies that the Biden and Harris Administration has implemented and demonstrated toward labor unions and the middle class over the previous years versus the lack of support received from both the Trump campaign as well as the Trump Administration, while former President Trump was in office,” Hall told Newsweek.
