Source: Drew Angerer / Getty
The latest ad from President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign touts all the health care work his administration has done specifically with Black America in mind while ripping Donald Trump’s vows to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama’s signature health care law credited for the helping to secure health insurance for a record number of Black people.
Aptly titled “Failure,” the 30-second spot running all month long warns as Election Day rapidly approaches that the ACA, more commonly known as Obamacare, could end up being a thing of the past if Trump is elected – especially for the more than 3 million Black people who depend on it for health care coverage. Such prospects would be compounded, the ad says, because Trump has also promised to undo other health care protections Biden secured, potentially resulting in skyrocketing costs of health care premiums and prescription drugs like insulin, which treats diabetes, a chronic condition that disproportionately affects Black people.
MORE: How Ending Obamacare Would Hurt Black People
Biden-Harris 2024 Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks explained how the new ad underscores the particular effects that another Trump presidency would have on Black America.
“Since Black voters sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020, they have worked day in and day out to protect the healthcare of millions of Black Americans and lower health care costs for our community,” Fulks said in a statement shared exclusively with NewsOne. “Whether it was his inability to lead us through the COVID-19 pandemic, or his repeated attempts to rip away healthcare from millions, Donald Trump was a complete failure for Black America. A second term would be even more disastrous.”
Below is an exclusive first look at the “Failure” ad which debuted on Tuesday.
The ad, which follows the weekend launch of Health Care Providers for Biden-Harris – a national organizing program engaging doctors, nurses, and other health care leaders and providers in mobilizing Black, Latino, and middle-class families, and seniors – is not hyperbole.
To be sure, Obamacare has narrowed the racial gap in health care coverage. The 2010 health care law, which passed with only Democratic votes, went into effect in 2014 and opened the door to a variety of coverage options for low- and moderate-income individuals who had no health insurance. The options included an expansion of Medicaid coverage in some states.
Before Obamacare went into effect, people of color were at a much higher risk of being uninsured compared to whites. About 19% of African Americans were uninsured, which didn’t take into account the scores of Black people who received minimal health coverage on low-wage jobs. At that time, 12% of whites were also uninsured.
By 2017 – the year Trump came into office – the uninsured rate of Black people fell to 11% and 7% for white people. Trump vowed to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a vague plan that never materialized amid a Republican-controlled Congress that failed to put forward an alternative healthcare plan that received widespread public support or was able to pass in Congress in his first two years in office.
Late last year, Trump again promised to repeal and replace Obamacare if he’s elected, putting millions of Americans insured by the healthcare law at risk.
“The stakes are too high for Black voters this election to allow Trump to step foot back in the Oval Office,” Fulks added. “That’s why, throughout the month of May, our campaign is continuing efforts to reach Black voters earlier, more often and more aggressively than any other reelection campaign in history.”
SEE ALSO:
Op-Ed: Trump Threatening Obamacare Puts Millions Of Lives At Risk
How The Health Care Problem In America Is Literally Killing Black People More
