A new ad touting Joe Biden’s efforts to lower health care costs will hit screens in battleground states on Thursday, capping a week in which the incumbent president’s reelection team has sought to hammer former President Donald Trump over his recent threats against the Affordable Care Act. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden's campaign on Thursday launched a new ad highlighting his efforts to lower health care costs will hit screens in battleground states

  • The ad caps off a week where Biden's campaign hammered former President Donald Trump over his recent threats against the Affordable Care Act

  • The one-minute spot will run the gamut of swing states, airing in major cities in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

  • A poll in May 2023 by KFF found about six in 10 Americans have a favorable opinion of the bill, which helps cover more than 40 million Americans, according to the Department of Health and Human Services

The new ad features a pediatric nurse in Las Vegas sharing her experience on how the health care system “has become a business” and highlighting Biden’s actions to lower prescription drug costs. 

The one-minute spot will run the gamut of swing states, airing in major cities in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The campaign is targeting the ad to air during shows such as The Voice and Survivor as well as high-rated sports and national cable news programming. 

“President Biden has made it a priority to lower costs and expand access to health care – and hard working Americans are seeing, and feeling, the results. It’s a stark contrast to Donald Trump’s America, where millions of Americans would lose their health care and see costs become even higher if his push to repeal the Affordable Care Act is successful,” Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. 

The fresh TV push fits neatly into a week in which the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign has leaned hard into contrasting the views of Biden and Trump – the current frontrunner for president on the GOP side – on healthcare, after the former president warned over the weekend the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare, could be on the chopping block should he win back the White House. 

“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social on Saturday. 

That comment sparked a rapid response from the Biden campaign, which sent a flurry of emails warning about the impacts of the bill being repealed and calling on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to host a press call on the topic with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. 

Amid the attention on his comment, Trump clarified that he doesn’t want to “terminate” the law, but wants to "replace" the landmark health care legislation.

“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Trump’s efforts to repeal the law when he was in office failed when three Republican senators, including Sen. John McCain, rebelled and voted against the move in 2017.

In the years since, Republicans have largely put to rest efforts to do away with the sweeping health care overhaul, which has become popular for policies such as allowing people to stay on their parents insurance until 26 and adding protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions. 

A poll in May 2023 by KFF found about six in 10 Americans have a favorable opinion of the bill, which helps cover more than 40 million Americans, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Biden, who is facing troublesome polling amid his reelection bid, has sought to highlight that nearly four million seniors on Medicare will have their cost for insulin capped at $35 a month and Medicare will negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices under his signature Inflation Reduction Act.