Joe Biden Is Lowering Costs and Expanding Access to Health Care

Today, more Americans have health insurance than under any president. President Biden’s work to lower health insurance premiums has led to record-breaking enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplaces, with over 21 million people signing up for coverage in 2024 – 9 million more than when the president took office. The Biden-Harris Administration isn’t stopping there and is building on this incredible success by:

• Keeping Health Insurance Premiums Low. Thanks to the president’s American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, millions of Americans are saving on average $800 a year on premiums. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to bringing down health insurance premium costs and giving families more breathing room and the peace of mind that health insurance brings. To do that, President Biden is calling on Congress to make the expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended permanent. 
• Closing the Medicaid Coverage Gap. President Biden continues to call on Congress to provide Medicaid-like coverage to people in the 10 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion, as well as keep Medicaid expansion enrollees covered.
• Keeping Kids Covered. Investing in our nation’s children is a top priority for President Biden. Research shows that when children have health insurance, they thrive: they’re healthier, they do better in school, and they are more likely to succeed in adulthood. Keeping children covered is the right thing to do, which is why the President wants to make sure that children up to age 6 can never lose coverage due to red tape, and that families only have to submit Medicaid paperwork once every three years.
• Making Home Care More Available. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, President Biden delivered $37 billion to all states to expand access to home care and improve the quality of caregiving jobs. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken steps to improve the quality of Medicaid home care services and to make sure home care workers get a bigger share of Medicaid payments for these critical services. The President remains committed to further improving and expanding Medicaid home care services and is calling on Congress to do their part to allow the hundreds of thousands of older adults and individuals with disabilities on Medicaid home care waiting lists to remain in their homes and stay active in their communities while continuing to improve the quality of jobs for caregivers.
• Ensuring Access to Mental Health Care. Ensuring robust access to mental health care has been a bipartisan priority for over 15 years, including the enactment of mental health and addiction parity requirements, which require health plans to cover mental health care and substance use benefits at the same levels as physical health care benefits. Yet today, too many Americans still struggle to find and afford the care they need. President Biden is committed to tackling the mental health crisis in this country, which means making health plans do their part and providing agencies with the needed support to make sure health insurance companies are doing so. The Biden-Harris Administration is working to finalize the mental health parity rule, which would close existing loopholes as well as ensure health plans evaluate access to mental health care in their networks, and make changes if it’s found to be inadequate. In addition, President Biden is calling on Congress to further increase access to mental health care by expanding coverage in Medicare and private insurance, applying the mental health parity requirements to Medicare beneficiaries, and extending Medicare incentive programs to address mental health provider shortages.
• Preventing More Surprise Medical Bills. Thanks to rules implemented by President Biden, Americans are now protected from receiving medical bills for most emergency care and air ambulance services, as well as when consumers didn’t know they were getting care from an out-of-network provider despite doing their homework and going to an in-network facility for treatment.  President Biden wants to further protect consumers by applying surprise billing protections to ground ambulance providers. The last thing people should worry about during an emergency is an unexpected bill for their ambulance ride.
• Cracking Down on Junk Insurance. Making sure Americans aren’t scammed into low-quality coverage and charged more or denied life-saving care is a key priority for President Biden—that’s why he is cracking down on junk insurance plans. This year, the Biden-Harris Administration has finalized rules to help millions of Americans access high-quality, affordable health insurance and protect consumers from being discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions.
• Ensuring care for all communities. President Biden and Vice President Harris are working to strengthen protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in health care and health insurance, and they increased enrollment in the ACA for LGBTQ+ Americans.

President Biden took on Big Pharma to lower costs for hardworking Americans—and won. Starting in 2025, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs for Americans on Medicare will be capped at $2,000 a year. Today, insulin for seniors is capped at $35 a month, down from as much as $400 a month. Learn more about these remarkable savings at joebiden.com/lower-drug-prices-lower-costs-for-insulin

It’s simple: he only cares about himself and his wealthy friends.  

By repealing the Affordable Care Act, Trump would give a windfall to Big Pharma and insurance companies and give billionaires another tax handout of more than $3.5 million apiece each year—while taking health care coverage away from millions of Americans, raising health care costs for those who still can get coverage and increasing the deficit.

No! The Affordable Care Act has never been more popular with the American people. Trump doesn’t care. Just look at these polls:

Axios: “Only 32% of Republican respondents said they think the future of the ACA is a very important issue for 2024 presidential candidates to talk about.”

KFF Poll: “64% believe it is ‘very important’ insurance companies continue to be prohibited from charging sick people more – including 55% of Republicans.”

NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: “Thirteen years after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, more than eight in ten Americans (83%) either agree or strongly agree that all Americans have a basic right to healthcare coverage.”

The Hill: “Even among Republicans, 66 percent of respondents said they did not want to see the preexisting condition protections overturned. Overall, the poll showed 79 percent of respondents do not want the court to cancel coverage protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.”KFF Poll: “Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents say it is ‘very important’ to continue each of [the Affordable Care Act’s] protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

Obamacare is the same thing as the ACA! The Affordable Care Act was nicknamed “Obamacare” because it was passed under President Obama. In 2009 and 2010, then-Vice President Biden played a crucial role in getting the votes needed to pass the landmark legislation.

You can visit healthcare.gov to find out if you’re eligible for ACA or Medicaid coverage, learn about essential health benefits,  compare plans, and enroll.