President Joe Biden called in his one-time boss, former President Barack Obama, to help promote the Affordable Care Act via a video message, marking the Biden team’s latest move to shine a light on the health care bill as former President Donald Trump toys with a renewed push to repeal it.
The release of the video of Biden and Obama on Friday coincided with the last day of open enrollment in which consumers can receive full coverage starting Jan. 1.
The video starts with the president reading a text message asking if "Obamacare," as the Affordable Care Act is colloquially known, is “still a thing” – a question Biden then poses to Obama.
“Is it still a thing?” Biden asks the former president in the just more than 30-second video.
“Yes, 'Obamacare,' the Affordable Care Act, 'Bidencare' – whatever you call it – yes, it is still a thing,” the former president responds. “The other side has been trying to repeal it every year since its existence, but we’ll keep fighting to protect it.”
“Not just protect it but expand it,” Biden adds, later ending the clip by remarking “It’s still a BFD.”
The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign has leaned hard into contrasting the views of Biden and Trump – the current front-runner for president on the GOP side – on health care, after the former president warned a few weeks ago the Obama-era bill could be on the chopping block should he win back the White House.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
That comment sparked a rapid response from the Biden campaign, which sent a flurry of emails warning about the impacts of the bill being repealed and calling on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to host a press call on the topic with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
Amid the attention on his comment, Trump clarified that he doesn’t want to “terminate” the law, but wants to "replace" the landmark health care legislation.
“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s fellow 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, told NBC earlier this month he would “replace and supersede” 'Obamacare' if elected, hitting the former president for not successfully repealing it during his time in the Oval Office.
“What I think they're going to need to do is have a plan that will supersede 'Obamacare,' that will lower prices for people so that they can afford health care while also making sure that people with preexisting conditions are protected,” DeSantis said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." “And we're going to look at the big institutions that are causing prices to be high: Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Government.”
Trump fell short of getting enough senators on board to repeal the health care legislation when he occupied the Oval Office.
In the years since, Republicans have largely put to rest efforts to do away with the sweeping health care overhaul, which has become popular for policies such as allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance until 26 and adding protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Friday marks the final day of open enrollment to get full-coverage starting in the new year. But the full open enrollment period runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. The Department of Health and Human Services said more than 7 million people selected an Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace plan between Nov. 1 and Dec. 2.