About a week ago, The New York Times published a stunning report about the “absence” of health care as a “top issue” in this year’s election cycle. “In nearly every major presidential race for decades, health care has been a major issue,” the Times report added, concluding that health care has become a “second-rate issue.”
A lot can change in a week.
The day the article was published, Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly mocked Donald Trump for saying he had “strategic ideas” to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Two days later, the former vice president, Sen. JD Vance, a Republican, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and laid out a plan that would repeal key protections in the ACA that apply to Americans with pre-existing conditions.
On Wednesday, instead of resigning, the senator from Ohio – who only arrived on Capitol Hill last year, and was not there for the “Obamacare” controversy that most of his colleagues remember well – weighed twice, he told a North Carolina audience of his desire to move those with pre-existing conditions into separate insurance pools.
The Harris campaign responded in a statement shortly afterward, “There should be no doubt about Donald Trump’s commitment to repealing the Affordable Care Act — he and House Republicans have tried to do it over 60 times. Now , one of the ‘ideas’ he is reversing is his plan to eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, throw millions off their health care, and raise costs for Millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.”
As a new Washington Post report explained, the competitive campaigns are “opening up the healthy debate that Democrats have been dying to have — and reigniting the battle that has repeatedly fueled the GOP.”
Experts said the ideas proposed by Vance threaten consumer protections included in the 2010 health law, such as laws that guarantee health coverage to tens of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. “I feel like I’ve been brought back to 2009,” said Adrianna McIntyre, a health professor at Harvard University who has studied health insurance markets. “Prior to the Affordable Care Act, few states had these high-risk pools, and generally, it was difficult for people to access them.”
As a matter of fact, this is an important point: Vance may be new to this, but the United States has a lot of experience with the model he adopted in recent days. It’s a model that didn’t work, and the Affordable Care Act was amended.
The 2024 Republican ticket, in other words, is desperate to turn back time for no good reason.
As the Post’s Catherine Rampell explained in her latest column, “Thanks to GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, we finally know what Donald Trump’s ‘strategic’ thoughts are for” replacing What the Affordable Care Act could look like. Unfortunately, those ideas could derail the US health care system.”
Rampell concluded, “Remember this the next time Vance or other Republicans promise you health insurance ‘choices.’ The real choice they’re giving you is the choice not to. you are sick.”
But as a political issue, all of this is happening with less than 50 days left in the presidential race, pushing health care into the national spotlight as voters cast their ballots in 2024, and raising the stakes. for elections.
That’s why Ammar Moussa, director of rapid response for the Harris campaign, published“Health care is back on the ballot.” It’s the same Democratic campaign that has organized 19 events with health care advocates in key states this week, highlighting the views of Trump and Vance.
To the extent that health care was a “secondary issue,” it no longer is.
#Harris #campaign #announces #Health #care #ballot