ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
Updated Sat, December 16, 2023
An insurance agent talks with clients inside the main location of Las Madrinas de los Seguros, Spanish for "The Godmothers of Insurance," at a shopping center in Miami, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
MIAMI (AP) — Salsa music blares from the food court in a rundown Miami shopping center as Latinos head to a kiosk and an office showing signs for “ Obamacare,” where they hope to renew their health coverage plans before the year ends.
It’s areas near this mall where former Democratic President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is more popular than anywhere in the country, according to federal data. The region has also shifted away from Democrats to Republicans in recent years, with Donald Trump hosting several rallies here as part of his outreach to Latino voters.
Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has pledged to renew efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 law — something that would be felt heavily in the region and could possibly reverse some of the GOP shift among South Florida's Latinos, experts say.
President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has already seized on Trump's statements about “Obamacare," which was enacted when Biden was vice president, as part of its broader efforts to shape the widely expected rematch with Trump next year.
“Health insurance is something that is extremely needed for everyone,” said Odalys Arevalo, one of the managing partners of a health insurance agency serving Spanish-speaking clients in Miami. “And I know that everybody that supports the Republican Party that has health insurance through Obamacare would not support the fact that it would be taken away from one day to another. That is a fact.”
Arevalo and her business partner, Mercy Cabrera, started enrollment centers to help people navigate the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces and remember how some Cubans would walk away uttering “no, no, no,” after seeing the name “Obamacare,” which was coined by Republicans opposing the overhaul as an expensive government takeover of health insurance.
Insurers could no longer deny coverage based on preexisting medical conditions, and that drew many Latinos to consider it, Arevalo says. In the following years, the women started enrolling tens of thousands, earning the nickname of “Madrinas del Obamacare,” or “Obamacare” godmothers, evoking the crucial role godparents play in Latino culture.
They have since renamed themselves “Las Madrinas de los Seguros,” or “insurance godmothers,” because they offer other plans. But they continue to feature the word “Obamacare” on their office walls and in their ads.
“Obamacare” is seen throughout Miami in advertising flags, businesses and bus signs. Federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicates how widely used it is here.
About 3.4 million Hispanics are signed up with insurance through the health law. Florida leads enrollment with more than 3.2 million consumers selecting a plan during last year's enrollment period from November 2022 to January. Miami-Dade is the county with the most people enrolled, with about 750,000 consumers, or more than one-fourth of the total population.
Florida is also one of 10 states that has resisted expanding Medicaid coverage under a provision of the health law.
The two Zip codes with the most sign-ups last year and this year are in Doral and Hialeah, hubs for the Venezuelan and Cuban communities that are just north of Miami and are common stops for Trump’s visits and rallies.
Last month, Trump posted on his Truth Social social media site that “the cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare.” While he said he is looking at alternatives, he has not shared any plans. But Trump said he would not give up on terminating it — recalling when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blocked the then-president's effort to repeal the law in July 2017.
During Trump's administration, Republicans managed to pass a provision that reduced the penalty for not having health insurance to zero, the most unpopular part of the law and something that people in South Florida say made them feel more at ease with the plans.
The Miami Herald, in a recent editorial, called the plans by Trump — also echoed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another 2024 GOP presidential candidate — “exceedingly out of touch with voters."
Biden’s campaign quickly mobilized a response and the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, specifically mentioned an area where “Obamacare” is popular.
“Miami-Dade County would be hardest hit by Trump’s anti-health care agenda,” Fried said.
According to a KFF poll conducted in May 2023, 59% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act. The same poll by the nonprofit organization focused on health policy found that 66% of Hispanics say they have a favorable opinion of the law.
According to APVoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of U.S. voters, 62% of 2022 midterm voters in Florida said it should be the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all people in the country have health care coverage. About one-third of Florida voters in the 2022 midterm elections said that shouldn’t be the government’s job. Among Latino or Hispanic midterm voters in Florida, 77% said ensuring health care coverage for all should be the responsibility of the federal government, while 1 in 5 said it should not be.
Zulina Ruiz, a 72-year-old retired lawyer from Venezuela, said she found out about the Affordable Care Act options quickly after arriving in the U.S. in 2017. She said she is particularly grateful for having access to drugs to treat her high blood pressure. Green-card holders, refugees and other migrants who have been granted temporary protected status or who have come recently with humanitarian parole also qualify for coverage under the law.
“This is very important for me. I don’t think a candidate can just make this program disappear,” she said. “They would leave millions of low-income people without insurance.”
Ruiz became a U.S. citizen in May, but has not registered with any party. She does not know whom she will vote for next year.
“I am still not decided, and we don’t have official candidates yet,” Ruiz said, adding that she still feels more connected politically to Venezuela. Much of the growing support for Republicans in Miami is owed to Trump’s record opposing socialist leaders across Latin America, including imposing White House sanctions on Venezuelan officials.
“But health policy is a top priority for me,” Ruiz said.
The Biden campaign has run advertising in battleground states contrasting his efforts to lower drug costs with Trump’s renewed promise to repeal the health overhaul. The ad campaign did not include markets in Florida.
Arevalo, one of the “Obamacare godmothers,” thinks voters in Miami may not necessarily approve of all the positions of the candidates they ultimately back.
But as far as a local verdict on “Obamacare,” and despite initial hesitations about it, the program grew on people in Miami once they understood it, she said.
“When Trump was elected, some people came and said they wanted nothing to do with Obamacare. We said ‘Obamacare, Trumpcare, whatever,’” she said of what they told people. “The important thing is that everybody has access to health insurance and that they can take care of their health.”
Biden and Obama team up for Obamacare enrollment push following Trump’s latest repeal threat
MIAMI (AP) — Salsa music blares from the food court in a rundown Miami shopping center as Latinos head to a kiosk and an office showing signs for “ Obamacare,” where they hope to renew their health coverage plans before the year ends.
It’s areas near this mall where former Democratic President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is more popular than anywhere in the country, according to federal data. The region has also shifted away from Democrats to Republicans in recent years, with Donald Trump hosting several rallies here as part of his outreach to Latino voters.
Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has pledged to renew efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 law — something that would be felt heavily in the region and could possibly reverse some of the GOP shift among South Florida's Latinos, experts say.
President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has already seized on Trump's statements about “Obamacare," which was enacted when Biden was vice president, as part of its broader efforts to shape the widely expected rematch with Trump next year.
“Health insurance is something that is extremely needed for everyone,” said Odalys Arevalo, one of the managing partners of a health insurance agency serving Spanish-speaking clients in Miami. “And I know that everybody that supports the Republican Party that has health insurance through Obamacare would not support the fact that it would be taken away from one day to another. That is a fact.”
Arevalo and her business partner, Mercy Cabrera, started enrollment centers to help people navigate the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces and remember how some Cubans would walk away uttering “no, no, no,” after seeing the name “Obamacare,” which was coined by Republicans opposing the overhaul as an expensive government takeover of health insurance.
Insurers could no longer deny coverage based on preexisting medical conditions, and that drew many Latinos to consider it, Arevalo says. In the following years, the women started enrolling tens of thousands, earning the nickname of “Madrinas del Obamacare,” or “Obamacare” godmothers, evoking the crucial role godparents play in Latino culture.
They have since renamed themselves “Las Madrinas de los Seguros,” or “insurance godmothers,” because they offer other plans. But they continue to feature the word “Obamacare” on their office walls and in their ads.
“Obamacare” is seen throughout Miami in advertising flags, businesses and bus signs. Federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicates how widely used it is here.
About 3.4 million Hispanics are signed up with insurance through the health law. Florida leads enrollment with more than 3.2 million consumers selecting a plan during last year's enrollment period from November 2022 to January. Miami-Dade is the county with the most people enrolled, with about 750,000 consumers, or more than one-fourth of the total population.
Florida is also one of 10 states that has resisted expanding Medicaid coverage under a provision of the health law.
The two Zip codes with the most sign-ups last year and this year are in Doral and Hialeah, hubs for the Venezuelan and Cuban communities that are just north of Miami and are common stops for Trump’s visits and rallies.
Last month, Trump posted on his Truth Social social media site that “the cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare.” While he said he is looking at alternatives, he has not shared any plans. But Trump said he would not give up on terminating it — recalling when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blocked the then-president's effort to repeal the law in July 2017.
During Trump's administration, Republicans managed to pass a provision that reduced the penalty for not having health insurance to zero, the most unpopular part of the law and something that people in South Florida say made them feel more at ease with the plans.
The Miami Herald, in a recent editorial, called the plans by Trump — also echoed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another 2024 GOP presidential candidate — “exceedingly out of touch with voters."
Biden’s campaign quickly mobilized a response and the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, specifically mentioned an area where “Obamacare” is popular.
“Miami-Dade County would be hardest hit by Trump’s anti-health care agenda,” Fried said.
According to a KFF poll conducted in May 2023, 59% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act. The same poll by the nonprofit organization focused on health policy found that 66% of Hispanics say they have a favorable opinion of the law.
According to APVoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of U.S. voters, 62% of 2022 midterm voters in Florida said it should be the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all people in the country have health care coverage. About one-third of Florida voters in the 2022 midterm elections said that shouldn’t be the government’s job. Among Latino or Hispanic midterm voters in Florida, 77% said ensuring health care coverage for all should be the responsibility of the federal government, while 1 in 5 said it should not be.
Zulina Ruiz, a 72-year-old retired lawyer from Venezuela, said she found out about the Affordable Care Act options quickly after arriving in the U.S. in 2017. She said she is particularly grateful for having access to drugs to treat her high blood pressure. Green-card holders, refugees and other migrants who have been granted temporary protected status or who have come recently with humanitarian parole also qualify for coverage under the law.
“This is very important for me. I don’t think a candidate can just make this program disappear,” she said. “They would leave millions of low-income people without insurance.”
Ruiz became a U.S. citizen in May, but has not registered with any party. She does not know whom she will vote for next year.
“I am still not decided, and we don’t have official candidates yet,” Ruiz said, adding that she still feels more connected politically to Venezuela. Much of the growing support for Republicans in Miami is owed to Trump’s record opposing socialist leaders across Latin America, including imposing White House sanctions on Venezuelan officials.
“But health policy is a top priority for me,” Ruiz said.
The Biden campaign has run advertising in battleground states contrasting his efforts to lower drug costs with Trump’s renewed promise to repeal the health overhaul. The ad campaign did not include markets in Florida.
Arevalo, one of the “Obamacare godmothers,” thinks voters in Miami may not necessarily approve of all the positions of the candidates they ultimately back.
But as far as a local verdict on “Obamacare,” and despite initial hesitations about it, the program grew on people in Miami once they understood it, she said.
“When Trump was elected, some people came and said they wanted nothing to do with Obamacare. We said ‘Obamacare, Trumpcare, whatever,’” she said of what they told people. “The important thing is that everybody has access to health insurance and that they can take care of their health.”
Biden and Obama team up for Obamacare enrollment push following Trump’s latest repeal threat
Arlette Saenz and Kevin Liptak, CNN
Fri, December 15, 2023
President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama teamed up on a new video vowing to protect and expand Obamacare at a time when former President Donald Trump has threatened to renew his efforts to repeal the health care law if he wins a second term.
The White House will release the video on social media later Friday as part of its effort to promote open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act exchanges, a White House official told CNN.
The video, first shared with CNN, starts with Biden reading a text message that asks, “Hey President Biden, is Obamacare still a thing?” Biden then turns to Obama and says, “Is it still a thing?”
“Yes, Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, Bidencare, whatever you call it – yes, it is still a thing,” Obama says. “The other side’s been trying to repeal it every year since it’s existed, but we’ll keep fighting to protect it.”
“Not just protect it but expand it, saving millions of dollars for working families. We’re covering more people than ever,” Biden adds. The president ends the video by saying, “It’s still a BFD,” a reference to his hot-mic expletive moment celebrating Obamacare’s passage in 2010.
The video, which was filmed last week when Obama made a previously undisclosed visit to the White House, coincides with the deadline to enroll in Obamacare plans to receive coverage at the start of the year. This year’s open enrollment period started on November 1 and runs through January 15 on the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov. Nearly 7.3 million people have signed up for 2024 coverage in the first five weeks, up nearly 34% from roughly the same period one year earlier.
The Biden-Obama collaboration comes as the White House and Biden campaign are eager to bring the health care debate front and center heading into the 2024 election. The new video does not name Trump, but it comes after Biden’s predecessor resurrected talk of repealing and replacing Obamacare last month. Trump’s move even surprised some of his own advisers as the law has gained popularity in recent years following multiple failed Republican attempts to scrap it.
The video marks the latest effort by Biden to lean on his former boss and partner to help make a health care push. Obama’s first public appearance at the White House since leaving the presidency came last year when he joined Biden to promote bolstering Obamacare by closing a loophole that prevented millions of families from receiving subsidies.
The former president has also taped videos celebrating record enrollment and the anniversary of his signature health care law. And he taped videos – often poking fun at himself – while in office and during Trump’s tenure encouraging Americans to sign up during open enrollment.
The Biden campaign has also tapped into Obama’s appeal in its fundraising efforts, releasing joint videos and holding contests for small dollar donors to meet the two men.
Reducing health care costs, including on prescription drugs, and expanding coverage are expected to be key feature of Biden’s 2024 platform. Biden often touts how he and congressional Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, giving Medicare the ability to negotiate some drug prices for the first time and cutting the cost of insulin for Medicare enrollees.
On Thursday, he promoted another provision of that law that requires drug companies pay a rebate to Medicare if they raise their prices faster than inflation.
“It’s a rip off. They’re ripping off Medicare. They’re ripping off the American people, but we’re now fighting back,” Biden said at the National Institutes of Health. “We’re gonna save taxpayers money and discourage companies from raising prices in the first place.”
Last week, the Biden administration also took several incremental steps aimed at lowering health care costs by promoting competition.
But a recent KFF poll showed few Americans are aware of the provisions Biden often touts, highlighting one of the challenges facing the president as he tries to convince Americans his policies are helping them.
Biden, Obama team up for ObamaCare promotion after Trump threats
Brett Samuels
Fri, December 15, 2023
President Biden and former President Obama teamed up for a video promoting the Affordable Care Act released Friday, the final day of open enrollment and as the signature law has faced renewed threats from former President Trump in his own campaign for the White House.
Obama filmed the roughly 30-second video alongside Biden during a recent undisclosed trip to the White House. Biden opens the video by reading a text message asking if ObamaCare is “still a thing.”
“Yes;, ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act, BidenCare — whatever you call it — yes it is still a thing,” Obama says. “The other side’s been trying to repeal it every year since its existence, but we’ll keep fighting to protect it.”
“Not just protect it, but expand it,” Biden adds. “It’s saving millions of dollars for working families. We’re covering more people than ever.”
Friday was the final day for open enrollment for plans through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. More than 7 million people had signed up for coverage as of last week.
Obama previously visited the White House in 2022 to promote the success of his signature health care law.
Trump, who is the front-runner for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, campaigned on repealing ObamaCare during his first term, but the effort stalled in Congress. The former president, who is the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024, raised the topic again last month.
“We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He doubled down in a later social media post, saying ObamaCare “sucks” and that he would replace it with something else.
Trump’s remarks have already been used as fodder by the White House, the Biden campaign and Democrats, who view protecting Americans from losing health insurance as a winning argument that helped propel the party into the House majority in 2018.
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