by WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris is launching a seven-figure ad blitz on health care, targeting Donald Trump’s calls to replace the Affordable Care Act with a mysterious plan he has not yet released.
The ad campaign, first reported by NBC News, is aimed at elevating the issue and capitalizing on what polls show is a weakness for Trump. In the new 60-second spot, Trump says during his in-person debate with Harris that he has “concepts for a plan” to reshape the U.S. health care system.
“You don’t have a plan,” Harris tells Trump in the ad, as she proclaims her calls to protect the ACA (or “Obamacare”) and expand the Biden-Harris policy that expanded subsidies to buy coverage and limiting the cost of insulin for seniors to $35 per month.
Her team has argued that Trump would simply eliminate the ACA, which would jeopardize coverage for the estimated 50 million people covered by the 2010 law by repealing subsidies to buy coverage, the marketplaces for Obamacare plans to dismantle and undo rules that prohibit insurers from charging sick people. more.
The ad, called “Concepts of a Plan,” will air in battleground states on television and cable shows, the campaign said, targeting diverse audiences during “programs such as 9-1-1, Brilliant Minds, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Grey’s. Anatomy, as well as networks such as Hallmark Channel and TLC during medical and health-related films and shows Dr. Pimple Popper and Untold Stories of the ER.”
It will also air nationally on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” ahead of the vice presidential debate Tuesday night. And the Harris campaign said it plans to follow this up with more healthcare-focused ads in the future.
The Harris campaign cited a new Gallup poll showing that health care remains a top issue for voters — and that two-thirds of American adults believe it has not received enough attention in the presidential campaign, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents . The poll found that independents are more likely to trust Harris when it comes to improving access to health care, increasing quality, lowering costs and protecting Medicare.
Notably, about 1 in 3 independents said they don’t trust any of the candidates in this area. That’s what Harris hopes to change.
“Being president is about who you fight for. Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth and says “health care,” he makes it clear that he is only there for himself and his wealthy friends — and not for the tens of millions of seniors, Medicaid recipients, and Americans with pre-existing health conditions who are hurting the affordable economy. know. Care Act is a lifeline,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said by email, pledging that Harris would be for “lowering costs and protecting every American’s access to health care” if elected would be.
Trump changes his ACA rhetoric
Trump has continued to criticize the ACA, but he has toned down some of his rhetoric lately, promising that he would overturn the law only if he came up with a better and cheaper replacement. He said in the September 10 debate that he will specify what that means “in the not-too-distant future.”
Trump also misrepresented and downplayed his fight to repeal the ACA during his four years as president.
When asked when he will release his health care plan, the Trump campaign did not respond. It sent NBC News a wide range of goals, promising that Trump would “eradicate waste, fraud and abuse across the entire health care system,” ensure “Americans get quality medicine at the best price” and “always put patients first would put’.
Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, “share the underlying principles of using greater marketplace choice and efficiency as tools for better, more affordable health care,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes , in a statement.
Vance recently stoked the health care debate by creating high-risk pools for some people, an idea that some conservatives have supported as a way to address high costs. Previous proposals for risk pools would divide healthier and sicker people into separate groups, lowering costs for the former and raising them for the latter unless the government spends a lot of money on people at higher risk. Democrats say the ACA is necessary to hire healthier people and spread risk, easing the burden on insurers so they don’t have to charge the neediest patients exorbitant fees.
Vance’s spokesman, William Martin, said of his comments: “Senator Vance was simply talking about the significant improvements President Trump has made to the Affordable Care Act through his deregulatory approach, which aimed to drive down premium costs while guarantee coverage for pre-existing conditions. ”
Trump won the 2016 election while promising to repeal the ACA, but he has struggled with the issue since. He pushed for a repeal and replacement bill in 2017, which was expected to cost millions of people their coverage and weaken regulations that protected people with pre-existing conditions. It passed the Republican Party-controlled House that year and died in the Senate. But Trump persisted, using executive actions to weaken the law and asking the Supreme Court to strike it down entirely in 2020.
Gradually, the ACA, signed by President Barack Obama, overcame his disapproval and became popular with the public. Healthcare was a big boon for Democrats in the 2018 and 2020 elections, according to exit polls, which showed many voters prioritized healthcare and favored Democrats over the Republican Party by wide margins.
A recent national survey from the Associated Press found that voters trust Harris over Trump on health care by 50% to 30%. The survey found that Trump took the lead on other key issues, such as handling the economy and dealing with immigration.
It’s a tricky issue for Trump as he tries to appeal to working-class and low-income voters of all backgrounds — including Americans who may have soured on Democrats on other issues but are more likely to lean on a health care safety net — for a winning coalition.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said his “policies would reduce costs by focusing on patients rather than companies and increasing the quality of care in the marketplace.”
