Making Health Care “Accessible and Affordable” Isn’t the Same as Making It Universal and Free
Centrist Democrats use phrases like “accessible and quality health care” to sound like they support reforming the broken US health care system while avoiding the only genuine reform: removing health care from the market altogether.
Joe Biden speaking with attendees at the 2020 Iowa State Education Association Legislative Conference in West Des Moines, Iowa, on January 18, 2020. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
In promoting the latest phase of his legislative agenda, President Joe Biden recently tweeted the following:
Access to quality, affordable health care should be a right in America — not a privilege. My Build Back Better Act will help fulfill that promise by extending tax credits to lower premiums for folks on the Affordable Care Act and lowering prescription drug costs.
Notwithstanding its underwhelming second portion (Biden’s statement achieving the climbdown from sweeping moral proclamation to tax credits in a mere two sentences), plenty of well-meaning Democratic partisans probably missed the subtle rhetorical sleight of hand at work in its first.
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