Biden cabinet member stumps for pandemic aid, Obamacare in Carson City

In his first trip since being confirmed, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Nevada on Tuesday to talk up the Affordable Care Act and efforts underway to expand coverage and reduce the cost of health care.
The secretary is one of several surrogates that President Joe Biden dispatched to drum up support for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes funding for people who lost health care coverage amid the pandemic. The package builds on the Affordable Care Act by expanding tax credits and subsidies to lower health care costs.
“I hope Nevadans take full advantage of what it does to help middle class families on the edge” during the pandemic, he said.
Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, the biggest expansion in federal aid since the Affordable Care Act, cuts premiums paid by a hypothetical 64-year-old making $58,000 from $1,075 a month to about $413, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. People who have even a brief spell of unemployment this year can get a standard plan for zero premium and reduced copays and deductibles. Much of the bill is tied to the pandemic and set to expire in 2022.
At a Carson City health center, Becerra announced an extension of the special enrollment period for the federal health insurance marketplace to Aug. 15. Health officials hope that prolonging the deadline by three months will allow people without insurance to enroll and take advantage of the new policies.
“The American Rescue Plan that just passed out of Congress helps reduce dramatically the cost of premiums that you get under the Affordable Care Act, so please take advantage,” Becerra told a roundtable of residents gathered at a Carson City health center to discuss how getting coverage affected their lives.
Becerra’s visit coincides with Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff’s trip to Omaha, Nebraska, and Biden’s speech in Columbus, Ohio. Each of the three praised the passage of the Affordable Care Act on its 11th anniversary. Becerra is the second top Biden administration official to visit Nevada, after Vice President Kamala Harris visited Las Vegas last week.
Republicans, who have decried the American Rescue Plan’s high price tag, pushed back on Democrats’ efforts to drum up support for the package in the western swing state. Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Joyce called the roundtable a “slap in the face of Nevadans.”
“The Democrats think people wouldn’t notice the funding going towards projects that have nothing to do with combating COVID-19,” he said in a statement.
Former Gov. Brian Sandoval was one of the few Republican governors to create a state-based exchange and expand Medicaid under the…