(AFP) – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris touted a likely vote-winning cut in medical costs Thursday ahead of holding their first joint public event since Harris replaced the president as the Democratic candidate in November’s election. They will use the appearance at a local college in Maryland to highlight a government deal with drugmakers to reduce the price retirees pay for 10 key medicines, including treatments for diabetes, heart failure, and blood clots.
The scope and timing of the deal — which the White House says will save older Americans $1.5 billion and the Medicare federal health insurance scheme $6 billion in the first year — is a boost for Harris in an election where the cost of living is a major issue. The vice president has been transformed into the Democrats’ star at astonishing speed since Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21, amid party fears that he was too old and too infirm to take on Republican Donald Trump. With Harris set to make a triumphant appearance at the Democratic National Convention next week, Biden, 81, is already in the lame duck phase of his presidency.
Thursday’s event marks an opportunity for 59-year-old Harris to share the accolades along with Biden, who has long made reductions in the notoriously expensive US medicine prices a priority. “For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table, while Big Pharma blocked Medicare from being able to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities. But we fought back — and won,” Biden said in a statement. “The vice president and I are not backing down. We will continue the fight to make sure all Americans can pay less for prescription drugs and to give more breathing room for American families.”
In her statement, Harris called the negotiations with pharmaceutical companies “historic” and “lifechanging” for Americans paying for prescription drugs. US residents face the highest prescription drug prices in the world, leaving many people to pay partly out of their own pocket, despite already exorbitant insurance premiums. The new deal was reached after Democrats pushed for the government to be able to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers for federal health programs.
The Maryland event comes on the eve of a speech where Harris will for the first time lay out details of her economic platform. The United States’ first female, Black, and South Asian vice president has already breathed life into the Democratic Party after the trauma of Biden’s departure. But while she has wiped out Trump’s lead in the opinion polls and drawn huge crowds to her rallies, she has yet to spell out her policies beyond broad brush strokes. She is expected largely to stick to Biden’s economic agenda while trying to differentiate herself and avoid voter wrath over the post-Covid pandemic surge in inflation.
Axios reported Wednesday that Harris wants to “break with Biden on issues on which he’s unpopular,” with rising prices being the top of the list. Discontent over prices has dogged Biden’s presidency, with many voters rating him poorly on the economy despite strong job growth, record stock markets, and a now steadily declining rate of inflation. While Trump has long polled more strongly on the economy, a recent poll from the Financial Times and University of Michigan found voters trust Harris more on the issue, by 42 to 41 percent.
Trump, who survived an assassination attempt on July 13, has struggled to adapt after Biden’s exit from the race and Harris’s fast start. At 78, Trump is two decades older than Harris and now the oldest presidential nominee in US history. He was due to hold a press conference at his New Jersey golf club later Thursday. In a speech on Wednesday, he veered off from prepared remarks about the economy to launch repeated personal insults against “crazy person” Harris, “stupid” Biden, and calling Harris’s running mate Tim Walz a “clown.”
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
