Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz took a shot at the health care plan proposed by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) that would abolish private health insurance.
“That’s not correct, that’s not American. What’s next? What industry are we going to abolish next? The coffee industry?” asked Schultz on Tuesday during an appearance on “CBS This Morning.”
Schultz went on to say that he doesn’t agree with the desire from many Republicans who want to get rid of Affordable Care Act.
“I don’t agree with that. The Affordable Care Act should stay and it should be refined. But the thing we should get rid of is the insurance industry? Again, this is exactly the situation ― it’s far too extreme on both sides and the silent majority of America does not have a voice,” he said.
As of this weekend, Schultz announced that he was seriously considering a 2020 presidential run.
His response to Harris, who officially launched her own 2020 presidential campaign over the weekend, came on the heels of her discussion with Jake Tapper in a CNN Town Hall on Sunday.
In that conversation, Tapper asked Harris about her proposal and whether or not people who actually like their private insurance plans could keep them under her plan.
“The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care, and you don’t have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require,” she said.
“Who of us has not had that situation where you gotta wait for approval and the doctor says, ‘Well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this.’ Let’s eliminate all of that, let’s move on.”
Outside of his response to Harris, Schultz has been very vocal about his feelings toward American health care in the last week, telling “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley: “Every American deserves the right to have access to quality health care but what the Democrats are proposing is something that is as false as the wall ― and that is free health care for all, which the country cannot afford.”
During that same interview, Schultz indicated his consideration for a presidential run would mean he’d run “as a centrist independent, outside of the two-party system.” The “lifelong Democrat” said he wouldn’t run as a Democrat because he feels that both parties are “consistently not doing what’s necessary on behalf of the American people” and engaging in “revenge politics.”
“I look at both parties, we see extremes on both sides,” he said. “We are sitting today with approximately $21.5 trillion of debt, which is a reckless example ― not only of Republicans, but of Democrats as well ― as a reckless failure of their constitutional responsibility.”