WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris has launched a seven-figure health care advertising blitz targeting President Donald Trump’s calls to replace the Affordable Care Act with a mysterious yet-unannounced plan. are.
The ad campaign, first reported by NBC News, aims to heighten the issue and take advantage of President Trump’s weaknesses in the polls. In the new 60-second spot, President Trump says during his face-to-face debate with Harris that he has an “envisioned plan” to rebuild the U.S. health care system.
“You don’t have a plan,” Harris tells Trump in the ad, protecting the ACA (or “Obamacare”), expanding subsidies to buy insurance, and reducing insulin costs for seniors. He has been touting his advocacy for an extension of the Biden-Harris policy that caps purchases at $35. per month.
His team argues that Trump would simply repeal the ACA, which would eliminate subsidies for purchasing insurance, dismantle the marketplace for Obamacare plans, and force insurers to charge sick people. Reversing the ban would threaten coverage for the estimated 50 million people covered by the 2010 law. more.
The ad, called “Concepts of a Plan,” aired on broadcast and cable programs in battleground states and featured “various characters during shows such as 9-1-1, Brilliant Minds, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Grey’s.” “We are targeting a wide range of audiences,” the campaign said. In addition to Anatomy, networks such as Hallmark Channel and TLC also air medical and health-related movies and shows such as “Dr. Pimple Popper” and “The Untold Story of ER.” ”
It will also be broadcast nationally on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” ahead of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate. And the Harris campaign said it plans to follow suit with more health care-focused ads in the future.
The Harris campaign cited the latest Gallup poll showing that health care remains a top issue for voters, with two-thirds of U.S. adults, including a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, saying they are against the presidential campaign. said that he believes that healthcare does not receive enough attention. The poll found independents are more likely to trust Harris to improve access to health care, improve quality, lower costs and protect Medicare.
Notably, about 1 in 3 independents said they did not trust either candidate on these issues. That’s what Harris wants to change.
“Being president means who you fight for. Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth and says ‘health care,’ he’s out there just for himself and his wealthy friends.” It is clear that it is coming out. Not for the tens of millions of seniors, Medicaid recipients, and Americans with pre-existing health conditions who know they can afford it. The Cares Act is a lifeline,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in an email, pledging that if elected, Harris would “lower costs and protect access to health care for all Americans.” .
President Trump corrects ACA rhetoric
President Trump has continued to criticize the ACA, but recently softened some of his rhetoric and vowed to repeal the law only if he comes up with a better, cheaper alternative. He said in a debate on September 10 that he would find out what that meant “in the not-too-distant future.”
Trump has also misrepresented and downplayed the fight to repeal the ACA during his four years in office.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about when it would announce its own health insurance plan. The newspaper sent NBC News a broad set of goals, saying Trump would “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse throughout our health care system” and “ensure Americans have access to high-quality medicines at the best prices.” He vowed to “always put patients first.”
Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. “We share the fundamental principles of leveraging choice and efficiency.”
Mr. Vance recently stoked the health care debate by offering high-risk pools to some people, an idea supported by some conservatives as a way to address high costs. Previous proposals for high-risk pools have been to separate healthy and sick people into separate buckets, lowering the cost of the former and lowering the cost of the latter, unless the government spends a lot of money to cover high-risk people. It was meant to raise costs. Democrats say the ACA is needed to spread the risk by enrolling healthier people and ease the burden on insurance companies so they don’t have to charge exorbitant costs to the neediest patients. I am doing it.
William Martin, a spokesman for Vance, said of his remarks: “Senator Vance was simply talking about the significant improvements President Trump has made to the Affordable Care Act through a deregulatory approach aimed at lowering premiums while preserving coverage for pre-existing conditions. ”
Trump won the 2016 election on a promise to repeal the ACA, but has struggled with the issue ever since. In 2017, he pushed for a repeal and replace bill that is expected to strip insurance premiums from millions of people and weaken regulations protecting people with pre-existing conditions. The bill passed the Republican-controlled House and died in the Senate. But President Trump persisted, using executive action to weaken the law and asking the Supreme Court to repeal it completely in 2020.
Along the way, the ACA, signed by President Barack Obama, overcame disapproval and became popular with the public. Exit polls show that health care was a big boon for Democrats in the 2018 and 2020 elections, with many voters prioritizing health care and supporting Democrats over Republicans by wide margins.
A recent national poll by The Associated Press found that voters have 50% to 30% more confidence in Harris to handle health care than President Trump. The poll also found Trump leading on other key issues, including dealing with the economy and immigration.
For President Trump, this means working-class and low-income voters of all backgrounds, including Americans who may be dissatisfied with Democrats on other issues but are more likely to rely on the health care safety net. ) to organize a party convention, this is a difficult issue. victorious coalition.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt said her policy would “lower costs by focusing on patients, not companies, and improving the quality of care in the marketplace.”
