Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
Should the American working class vote for Trump or Biden?
Position‹2 of 2
The American working class should vote for Biden
Argument‹2 of 3›

Biden will expand healthcare programs

Biden is planning expansions to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He is vowing to increase eligibility and national coverage and to reduce costs to households.

The argument

Biden will expand the eligibility and funding of programs like Medicare and Medicaid and improve the ACA. He plans to reduce the cost of healthcare and simplify the current system. His aim is to increase health insurance coverage to 97% of Americans. He will accomplish this by giving Americans more choice for their insurance plan and increasing the coverage to low income households. Currently, what state you live in determines your access to healthcare. 14 states have not upheld the expansions to Medicare eligibility leaving an estimated 4.9 million Americans uninsured. Biden will give these people the option to sign up to a public health insurance option. Furthermore, Biden plans to set a threshold at 138% of the federal poverty rate. Americans who earn below this amount will automatically be enrolled in the public health insurance option. Biden is also pro-choice. He will work to promote abortion rights and stop states from unconstitutionally going against the right to abortion. He also intends to increase funding and support for Planned Parenthood. All these policies are intended to lower the cost of living for low income families and will have long term benefits for working class households.

Premises

[P1]Biden plans to expand Medicare and Medicaid, improve the ACA, and raise health insurance coverage to 97% of Americans. [P2] He would offer a public insurance option to the 4.9 million left uninsured by states that refused Medicaid expansion, auto-enrolling those below 138% of the poverty line. [P3] These policies lower the cost of living for low-income families with long-term benefits for working-class households. [C] Therefore, because Biden will expand healthcare programs, the American working class should vote for Biden.

Counter-arguments

Many of these measures passing are dependent on who controls the House and the Senate. They are ambitious, but perhaps too much so, with some of his more centrist policies being seen as too extreme by more conservative voters. Yet, to many of the more liberally minded, Biden is not going far enough. Striking the balance between pushing for reforms and appeasing the center and more right wing member of his own party will be hard.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premises describe a platform rather than a record: stated intentions and coverage targets are proposals, and nothing here bears on whether they could be enacted. [Rejecting P2] Enactment depends on control of both chambers and on the votes within the president's own party, which the counter identifies as the binding constraint; a plan blocked in the Senate delivers no coverage to anyone. [Rejecting P3] Expanded coverage has to be paid for and the premise does not say how, so the claim that these policies lower the cost of living for low-income households leaves out the taxes, premiums or offsets by which they would be financed.