President Biden’s reelection campaign is taking former President Trump at his word that he will attempt to repeal ObamaCare, and is relaying that message to Latino voters.
The Biden campaign’s reasoning is simple: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) dramatically cut the uninsured rate among Hispanics, and defense of the health law was a major motivator for Latinos who voted for Biden in 2020.
“When Donald Trump says he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he’s telling millions of Latino families that he wants to rip away their access to affordable health care. The Affordable Care Act has been a lifeline for the Hispanic community,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager.
On the campaign trail, Trump has doubled down on his promise to repeal the ACA, a feat he fell one vote short of in 2017.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
“We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
GOP politicians have derided ObamaCare since it was passed, and Republican primary voters respond positively to any attacks that target former President Obama.
But the ACA is widely popular, particularly its reforms regarding preexisting conditions and allowing older children to stay on their parents’ insurance.
According to a 2020 Brookings Institution study, health care costs were a top concern for 32 percent of Latino voters in that year’s election.
The study also found that 91 percent of Latino voters say the government should ensure access to affordable health care.
And Latinos also seem primed to vote on the issue in 2024.
According to a UnidosUS poll released Wednesday, 33 percent of Latino voters say health care is a top issue for them, and 39 percent say Democrats are “better on this issue,” while 21 percent favor Republicans.
Over the last decade, as Latino political participation has grown, health care has remained a top issue, in large part because of the ACA’s effects.
A KFF analysis found the uninsured rate among nonelderly Latinos in 2013 was 30 percent, a figure that plummeted since the adoption of the ACA’s Medicaid and marketplace expansions.
The nonelderly uninsured rate for Latinos in 2022 was 18 percent, according to the study, still 2.5 times higher than the uninsured rate for white people.
The Biden campaign is megaphoning those kinds of statistics.
“If Donald Trump is able to regain power, he’ll gut health care for more than 40 million Americans and blow up the uninsured rate for Hispanics to 33 percent,” said Chavez Rodriguez.
Democrats hope that message will be especially powerful in Arizona, where Hispanics represent about half of Medicaid enrollees following the state’s adoption of ACA Medicaid expansion, according to a KFF study.
The message is also directed at Florida, where a 2020 KFF study estimated that of the nearly 800,000 people who would benefit from Medicaid expansion, 29 percent are Hispanic.
Trump’s threats to can the ACA also dovetail with Biden’s early legislative successes, such as the Inflation Reduction Act’s cap on the cost of insulin — a top health care issue for Latinos, a majority of whom are at a higher risk to develop diabetes.
“Meanwhile, President Biden has actually delivered for the Latino community, expanding health care access, capping the cost of insulin at $35, and lowering costs. Donald Trump may try to claim that he is fighting for us, but the reality is he will happily side with Big Pharma and insurance companies at our expense,” said Chavez Rodriguez.