ELECTIONS

Joe Biden, Obama and Pelosi warn against Trump's push to repeal Affordable Care Act

Ken Tran
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign held an organizing call Saturday with supporters championing the Affordable Care Act on its 14th anniversary and warning against former President Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal it in a taped video Friday.

Biden was joined by former President Barack Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to celebrate the legislation, sometimes referred to as “Obamacare.” The ACA aimed at lowering the costs of health care by expanding Medicaid and offering subsidized private health insurance.

US President Joe Biden gives a speech at Intel Ocotillo Campus on March 20, 2024 in Chandler, Arizona. Biden announced $8.5 billion in federal funding from the CHIPS Act for Intel Corp. to manufacture semiconductors in Arizona.

Trump has railed against the ACA. During his administration, the former president sought relentlessly to repeal it but congressional Republicans failed to unite behind the effort.

“Now – Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists – are determined to try again” to repeal the ACA, Biden said in the call. “We won’t let that happen. We’re determined as ever to defend and strengthen the Affordable Care Act – and to make health care a right – not a privilege in America. I know we can do it.”

Biden also praised Pelosi, who led the efforts in the House during her tenure as speaker in 2010, saying the ACA “would not be law without her.”

On Thursday, both House and Senate Democratic leadership held a press conference in the Capitol also commemorating the ACA’s 14th anniversary.