- Position1 of 2›
- Joe Biden should be elected in the 2020 US election
Since 2016, the number of Americans unable to afford healthcare has risen by 1.4 million. Biden has vowed to reverse this trend and widen access to healthcare for all, viewing it as a right rather than a privilege.
The argument
Joe Biden was a part of an administration that passed sweeping healthcare reforms in the US. Under a Biden administration, those programs would expand, insuring every American. The Affordable Care Act was one of the most ambitious and influential laws in generations. Joe Biden had a hand in crafting the bill and knows what it takes to make sweeping reforms to the American healthcare system. While Joe Biden does not endorse the far-reaching Medicare-for-All plan, he has shown support for increasing the public option under the ACA, which would provide quality, affordable healthcare to more Americans. Further, Biden has pushed to lower the age for Medicare eligibility to 60, encompassing more Americans in one of the country's most successful programs. He would also provide aid to states wishing to expand their Medicaid systems, which would help insure more Americans in the poorest of states. Overall, Joe Biden needs to win this election because of his commitment to providing cost-effective and quality healthcare to more Americans, at least as an option.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Bidens plan for the expansion of social programs like Medicaid could cost states hundreds of millions of dollars. On top of that, asking the government to spend money at a time when local, state, and federal governments are losing money from the Covid-19 pandemic is a reckless move. Biden is asking for more government spending, which we cannot afford right now.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Having helped craft a law is evidence of experience, not of what a later administration would enact; the premise moves from participation in the ACA to a prediction about future legislation without addressing whether the votes for it would exist. [Rejecting P2] A public option, a lower Medicare age and aid to expanding states would extend coverage to more people, but the body itself concedes the plan stops short of universal coverage — which is less than the claim that every American would be insured.