Washington, DC — Coverage from this week’s debates highlights the missed opportunity Democrats had when it came to calling out the biggest ongoing threat facing Americans’ health care: President Trump and Republicans’ lawsuit to destroy health care. And Republican are also failing to take action to lower the costs of prescription drugs and hold drug and insurance companies accountable, an issue poll after poll shows voters want action on.
“Health care won Democrats the election in 2018 and is the number one issue for voters in every poll about 2020,” said Protect Our Care chair Leslie Dach. “Democrats want to lower costs, protect people with pre-existing conditions, expand coverage and stop the relentless GOP war on American health care. President Trump and Republicans want to protect the drug and insurance industries, gut projections for pre-existing conditions and take health insurance away from tens of millions. The differences could not be more important or more obvious.”
- USA Today Editorial Board: Democrats Should Focus On Trump’s “Tag-Team” Approach To Repealing The ACA. “In 2017, President Donald Trump came within a hair of repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Undaunted, he is now pushing a tag-team approach, where his Republican allies in Congress repeal a key part of it, and his allies in robes repeal the rest of it. If Trump were to succeed, and because he has no viable plan to replace Obamacare, tens of millions of Americans would lose their coverage, people with preexisting conditions would become vulnerable and an entire industry would be thrown into disarray.” [USA Today, 8/1/19]
- The New York Times: It Was Easy To Imagine House Democrats Who Campaigned On Health Care “Being Aghast” At The Fact That Not A Single Candidate Mentioned The Texas Lawsuit. “Republicans watching the debate may well have been smiling; the infighting about taking away people’s ability to choose their health care plan and spending too much on a pipe-dream plan played into some of President Trump’s favorite talking points. Mr. Trump is focusing on health proposals that do not involve coverage — lowering drug prices, for example — as his administration sides with the plaintiffs in a court case seeking to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, putting millions of people’s coverage at risk. It was easy to imagine House Democrats who campaigned on health care, helping their party retake control of the chamber, being aghast at the fact that not a single candidate mentioned the case.” [The New York Times, 7/30/19]
- Washington Post: Democrats’ ‘missed opportunity’ to talk about drug prices. “’There is such a disconnect between what the polling shows voters want, and where the debate is,’ said Dan Mendelson, founder of Avalere Health, a Washington-based consulting firm. Polls show that the American public wants the government to improve health care more than any other issue. And in one survey late last year by the Harvard School of Public Health and Politico, respondents were asked to choose the aspects of health care they considered extremely important for the government to address. Lowering prescription drug prices was listed by 92 percent of those surveyed — more than any other issue.” [The Washington Post, 8/1/19]