Senator Kamala Harris Officially Hops on the Single-Payer Train

Senator Kamala Harris, who has previously expressed measured support of a single-payer healthcare solution, has officially jumped on-board. On Wednesday, Harris announced that she would co-sponsor a Medicare-for-All bill that her colleague, Senator Bernie Sanders plans to introduce when the senate’s summer recess concludes.

Addressing a crowd in Oakland, CA, the first term California senator said she will sponsor Sanders’ bill because it’s “the right thing to do.” But her decision was not wholly based on ethics: “It’s not just about what is morally and ethically right, it also makes sense just from a fiscal standpoint,” Harris added.

While Harris has previously said she supported the “concept” of a single-payer healthcare system, Wednesday’s announcement was her first explicit endorsement of Sanders’ bill. Sanders thanked Harris on Twitter shortly after she made the announcement.

A single-payer healthcare bill has already been introduced in the House by Representative John Conyers Jr., of Michigan. That bill now has 117 co-sponsors. In June, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joined Sanders in his push for single-payer. “Now it’s time for the next step,” Warren told The Wall Street Journal. “And the next step is single-payer.”