Joe Biden warned on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s attempts to roll back the Affordable Care Act could have disastrous consequences for Americans who become infected with the coronavirus.
“Most cruel of all, if Donald Trump gets his way, COVID-19 complications could become a new pre-existing condition,” which insurance plans would no longer cover, Biden, the alleged 2020 Democratic candidate, will say during a speech on Thursday. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to prepared comments provided by his campaign.
“Some survivors will experience lasting health impacts, such as lung scarring and heart damage,” said Biden. “And if Donald Trump prevails in court, insurers would be allowed to drop coverage or increase premiums simply because of their battle with the coronavirus,” Biden will say, referring to the Trump administration’s ongoing legal effort to invalidate the Affordable Health Care: The firm’s health law, also known as Obamacare.
“They would live their lives caught in a vise among Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his inability to protect the American people from the coronavirus and his ruthless crusade to remove the health protections of American families,” Biden said at the Recreation Center. from Lancaster. Before the speech, Biden met with local families to discuss health care issues. Across the street from the socially estranged outdoor gathering, a group of Trump supporters could be heard shouting “four more years” and “making America great.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration joined a coalition of Republican-led states to ask a federal appeals court to completely overturn the Affordable Care Act, a decision that could leave millions uninsured.
The speech marks Biden’s latest attack on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Biden, in a speech on the outskirts of Philadelphia, accused Trump of “flatly surrendering” in the fight against the disease and urged the president to “wake up” and “get to work.”
Biden on Thursday will also hit Trump for commenting at his first campaign rally in the months of Saturday that he wanted to delay testing for the coronavirus.
“Evidence unequivocally saves lives, and widespread testing is the key to reopening our economy,” Biden will say. But Trump, he added, “believes that finding out that more Americans are sick will make him look bad.” And that is what worries him. He’s worried about looking bad. “
Biden’s increased targeting in Pennsylvania makes sense: The state is among the most critical battlegrounds in the 2020 race and is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.
As of Thursday, the state had the eighth most confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the fifth highest number of deaths in the U.S.
The economic cost has been even more surprising. Since March 14, at least 2.1 million Pennsylvania residents (or nearly 1 in 3 workers in the state) have lost their jobs, the sixth highest number during that period in the country.
The place for the speech, however, is surprising. While healthcare is a dominant industry in Lancaster, Trump easily ran the county in 2016, beating Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 percentage points. Barack Obama also lost the county by double digits in 2008 and 2012.
