July 16, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Former vice president Joe Biden unveiled on Monday the health care plan he would implement if elected president, an expansion of Obamacare that would enshrine abortion on demand, and at taxpayer expense, into federal law.
According to the summary released on Biden’s campaign site, the Democrat frontrunner’s plan would “build on the Affordable Care Act,” better known as Obamacare, by expanding coverage mandates, increasing the associated tax credits, and adding a government-run “public option” for health insurance, among a host of other changes and regulations.
Further, Biden would “codify” Roe v. Wade in federal law; repeal the Hyde Amendment that bars direct public funding of most abortions; force states to accept Medicare funding for Planned Parenthood, reverse the Mexico City Policy, which bars federal funds from supporting abortion overseas; and direct the Justice Department to “do everything in its power” to block state pro-life laws, including parental notification requirements, ultrasound laws, and waiting periods.
“Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income,” the campaign declared.
The Washington Examiner’s Phillip Klein called Biden’s plan “Obamacare on steroids,” determining that it would “dramatically increase the price tag of Obamacare and likely erode employer insurance.” Yet Biden’s expansion of former President Barack Obama’s flagship policy is seen as relatively moderate among the 2020 Democrat candidates, several of whom have endorsed replacing both Obamacare and private insurance with a single-payer, government-run system dubbed “Medicare for All.”
ABC News reports that Biden hopes his plan will emphasize his association with the previous president and justifies expanding Obamacare rather than replacing it on the grounds that “we should not be starting from scratch. We should be building from what we have. There is no time to wait.”
The health care plan references every major abortion-related promise Biden has previously made and appears crafted to match the absolutist pro-abortion platforms of Biden’s competitors, who attacked him last month for expressing support for the Hyde Amendment before quickly reversing himself. He later claimed he had changed his mind not for political expediency, but while crafting his health plan and reflecting on how it would interact with Hyde.
Despite the abortion lobby’s displeasure with him, Biden, who claims to be an observant Catholic, already had a radically pro-abortion record.
As a senator, he generally voted in lockstep with Planned Parenthood and NARAL. As Obama’s running mate, he spent eight years in what was arguably the most pro-abortion administration in American history, during which he told a Chinese audience he was “not second-guessing” their government’s practice of forcing families into abortion and sterilization.