Democrats ready to run on health care in 2018

Candidates have a unified message blaming Republicans for ‘sabotaging’ the health law.

By JENNIFER HABERKORN 05/15/2018 05:01 AM EDT

Democrats are confidently running on Obamacare for the first time in a decade.

They’ve got a unified message blaming Republicans for “sabotaging” the health law, leading to a cascade of sky-high insurance premiums that will come just before the November midterm elections. They’re rolling out ads featuring people helped by the law. And Tuesday, they’re starting a campaign to amplify each state’s premium increases — and tie those to GOP decisions.

That’s a big change from four election cycles of reluctance to talk about Obamacare on the stump. During those campaigns, red-state Democrats were often on the defensive, dodging accusations they imposed government-run health care on unwilling Americans, made it impossible for people to keep their doctors and health plans, and caused double-digit premium increases every year.

Now, even those Democrats see Obamacare as a political advantage. The Affordable Care Act has grown significantly more popular. And as Republicans learned last year when they failed to repeal it, the public had scant interest in taking away coverage from millions of Americans, including low income and vulnerable people on Medicaid. Democrats are also seizing the issue of rising prescription drug prices — another health care cost problem the public holds the GOP responsible for, according to polls.

While the health insurance premiums are still going up — by double-digits, according to the first few preliminary state filings for 2019 — Democrats say the rising costs are now an albatross around Republican necks.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/15/democrats-embrace-obamacare-2018-539411