DURHAM, N.C. — With midterm elections just over two months away, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Durham on Thursday to promote the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce health care costs and increase access.
Harris spent the afternoon at the Durham Center for Senior Life, where she was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper, Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal and U.S. Rep. David Price. After receiving a tour of the facility and speaking with seniors and advocates, the vice president delivered remarks about the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
“Access to health care should be a right,” Harris said to an audience of approximately 200 people. “Not a privilege for those who can afford it. ... We’re not talking about a luxury. We’re talking about an essential need.”
The sweeping climate, health care and tax legislation, which caps the price of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare recipients and empowers health officials to begin negotiating the costs of certain prescription drugs for those on Medicare over the next several years, passed Congress on two party-line votes last month. The bill moved out of the Senate after Harris cast a tie-breaking vote.
Harris noted that approximately 9% of seniors live in poverty, a figure that jumps to 14% for women aged 80 or older. Many of those people have diabetes, but some have been barred from adequate treatment due to the high cost of insulin, she said.
Prior to her remarks, Harris and Cooper spoke with advocates and seniors at the Durham nonprofit about challenges in the medical system, including overwhelming co-pays, limited access to important vaccines and Medicaid complications.
“Other countries are making it affordable,” Harris said, “and we can, too.”
Cooper said more government representatives should speak with people like DCSL’s advocates, instead of corporate lobbyists.
“It is a tragedy that (the vote for the Inflation Reduction Act) was right down party lines as if this is a political issue,” Harris said.
All Republicans in Congress voted against the measure, saying it would do nothing to address inflation and criticizing it for adding new taxes on companies and funding IRS tax enforcement.
Cooper on Medicaid expansion
Before Harris took to the stage, Cooper talked about older North Carolinians’ contributions to the state and the obligation of lawmakers to care for them.
“How are we going to treat them?” Cooper said. “Do we make them choose between food and medicine? Too many have to.”
At the state level, Cooper pointed to Medicaid expansion as the next major legislative action lawmakers need to take to improve access to affordable health care.
Leaders of the state legislature, which is Republican-controlled, failed to reach an agreement on Medicaid expansion in June at the end of their annual session, but lawmakers have expressed optimism that a bipartisan deal can be reached in the coming months, possibly even sooner. Expanding Medicaid would provide insurance coverage to an estimated 500,000 additional North Carolinians.
”There’s more money for us if we do it,” Cooper said, referring to roughly $1.5 billion in federal funds the state could receive, depending on when expansion is enacted. “You hear that, legislature? You hear that?”
After her remarks at the senior care center, Harris was scheduled to speak at a private fundraiser for the Democratic Party, before returning to Washington.
Thursday’s visit was Harris’ second to Durham in six months. In early March, the vice president spoke at Durham Technical Community College to promote union jobs as the way forward for economic recovery and expansion.
Biden approval rating ahead of midterms
Harris’ visit comes just over two months before the midterm election, when North Carolinians will go to the polls to elect candidates in all 14 U.S. House seats and in an open U.S. Senate race. With the Democratic Party controlling both chambers of Congress by thin margins, especially in the Senate, November’s election could be crucial in determining which party has a majority going forward.
President Joe Biden’s national approval rating, which could indicate how voters feel about the incumbent administration heading into the upcoming election, increased to 44% in recent weeks after sinking to a personal low of 38% in July, according to the polling organization Gallup.
Biden has recorded lower approval ratings in North Carolina specifically. A poll released Thursday by High Point University found his approval rating among North Carolinians at 32%. A previous poll conducted by Meredith College released in May found the number at 40%.
In a statement, the North Carolina Democratic Party said it was “thrilled” that Harris was returning to Durham to tout the administration’s efforts to lower health care costs.
“The Vice President’s visit today makes clear that Democrats are delivering results for our state while Republicans don’t have a plan to help working people,” NCDP Chair Bobbie Richardson said.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, called the Biden administration’s approval rating in North Carolina “abysmal.”
“Kamala Harris is not welcomed by North Carolinians as evidenced by the Biden administration’s abysmal approval rating in the Tar Heel State,” said RNC spokeswoman Taylor Mazock. “Republicans are working hard to engage voters across the state and send Ted Budd to Washington in order to and deliver on policies that North Carolinians care about the most.”
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