Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 13
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will promote their health care agenda on Tuesday in North Carolina, a battleground state that Democrats hope to flip in their favor after falling short to Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections.
Vice President Harris landed ahead of President Biden for the event. Harris spoke first at the event held in Chavis Park followed by President Biden.
Fourteen years after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the White House still sees health care as a winning issue during a campaign where Biden has sometimes found himself on the defensive when it comes to immigration or the economy. Republicans have opposed Biden’s signature initiatives to lower medical costs, and they’ve seized opportunities to restrict abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
North Carolina is Biden’s final stop in his tour of battleground states after his State of the Union earlier this month, which jumpstarted a frenzied travel schedule as the Democratic president makes his case for a second term in a likely rematch with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
The state is also a health care success story for the president. The American Rescue Plan, a pandemic recovery measure signed by Biden, included financial incentives for states to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income residents. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, was able to use the money, which amounted to $1.8 billion, to persuade Republican lawmakers to go along with his plan. More than 600,000 residents are expected to qualify.
The visit from Biden and Harris comes on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case about access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill. An eventual ruling could further restrict access to abortion.
The White House has tried to make mifepristone more available as one of its few opportunities to protect women’s ability to end their pregnancies.
“We will continue to fight back against unprecedented attacks on women’s freedom to make their own health decisions,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
After speaking about health care in Raleigh, Biden and Harris will also attend a campaign fundraiser in the city. They’ve built a significant cash advantage over Trump, with $155 million cash on hand at the end of the first quarter of the year. Trump had $37 million.
Biden’s approval ratings on health care are among his highest on a range of issues, but he remains underwater there too. According to a February poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 42% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of health care while 55% disapprove.
KFF, a health policy research firm, conducted its own poll in November and found that 59% of U.S. adults trust the Democratic Party to do a better job addressing health care affordability issues. Only 39% said the same about Republicans. There was a similar divide in trust when it came to access to mental health care, prescription drug costs and the future of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
