As he heads into a re-election campaign next year, President Biden is betting that his success in advancing policies aimed at lowering health care costs for millions of Americans will be rewarded by voters at the ballot box.
In speech after speech, Mr. Biden talked about capping the cost of insulin at $35, putting new limits on medical expenses for seniors, making some vaccines free and pushing to lower the prices of some of the most expensive drugs in the world.
At the White House, Mr. Biden and his advisers have begun to elevate the issue to the center of his agenda. And at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., aides are preparing television commercials, talking points and speeches arguing that Mr. Biden’s push for lower health care costs was a stark contrast to his Republican opponents.
“The president is going to have a very strong case to make,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a member of the president’s national campaign advisory board. “People will not only want to keep the benefits they see, they will want to get the benefits that are coming to them.”
On Tuesday, the White House announced that the Biden administration will negotiate on behalf of Medicare recipients for lower prices on 10 popular — and expensive — drugs used to treat diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illness
The move was made possible by the passage last year of Mr. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which for the first time allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the elderly, a change opposed by the drug industry. pharmaceutical for decades.
Republicans also generally oppose giving the government the right to negotiate drug prices. But the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have said little about the cost of medicine, focusing instead on abortion, transgender medical issues and Covid lockdowns.
In his speeches, Mr. Biden railed against the industry and his Republican opponents in Congress, all of whom voted against legislation that included prescription drug provisions. Aides say it’s an effective message.
“Today is the beginning of a new deal for patients where Big Pharma doesn’t just get a blank check at your expense,” the president said at a White House event celebrating the change.
Since signing the law a year ago, Mr. Biden has repeatedly called it one of his proudest legislative victories. But his approval numbers have barely budged. And while polls show that the new policy is widely popular among Americans who know about it, they also suggest that fewer people are aware that the change has been made.
That’s likely because prices on just the first handful of drugs aren’t scheduled to actually drop until 2026 at the earliest, assuming Mr. Biden’s program survives legal challenges. Drug companies have filed multiple lawsuits against the administration claiming the law is unconstitutional. Court cases can take years.
In its lawsuit against the administration, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group, called the plan for negotiated prices “a government order disguised as a negotiation.”
Even if Mr. Biden’s plan goes into effect, older adults who decide to ration their medications will have to continue doing so until more than a year after the 2024 presidential election.
Danny Cottrell, 67, a pharmacist who owns his retail pharmacy group in Brewton, Ala., said he regularly counsels his Medicare patients on the ins and outs of the government’s prescription program. He welcomed Mr. Biden’s changes, but said it was up to people like him to explain the complicated process.
“I have to remind them, it doesn’t start until 2026,” Mr. Cottrell said. “And then also remind them that this thing will change many times between now and then.”
Neera Tanden, Mr. Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, said the White House was confident the plan would survive legal challenges.
“It is absurd to argue that the negotiation is unconstitutional,” he said in an interview. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says it’s unconstitutional for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.”
But more broadly, Ms. He and other presidential advisers in the West Wing are already determined to make the push for lower health care costs a central part of Mr. Biden’s message to the American people.
And next September, just weeks before Election Day, the administration will announce the results of a year’s worth of negotiations on the first 10 drugs.
“We plan to work hard, to really remind people of this issue,” said Ms. Tanden.
For the people leading Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign, the political benefits of focusing on lower health care costs are clear.
Some polls show that 80 percent of Americans support giving the government the ability to negotiate lower prices for Medicare, as it does for veterans and members of the military.
Campaign aides said talking about lower drug costs or limits on out-of-pocket medical expenses is one way to help Mr. Biden to gain support among seniors, who traditionally vote for Republicans in greater numbers. That’s especially important in battleground states like Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Ohio, where increased support among seniors will be critical in close contests.
Early campaign television ads included numerous references to the president’s efforts to lower health care costs. A spokeswoman for the campaign said the health care issue will be a major feature of a $25 million ad blitz focusing on what the president has done to lower costs overall and create economic growth.
Kate Bedingfield, who served as Mr. Biden’s communications director for the first two years of his presidency, said the issue has political benefits even when it comes to appealing to people who don’t directly benefit from specific cost reduction.
“It draws a really clear contrast to the Republicans, who have blocked and continue to block doing more about this,” he said.
Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas and a doctor, said Mr. Biden’s drug price negotiations were similar to government-imposed price controls that would lead to drug shortages.
“This administration’s approach is about more than ‘negotiation,'” he said in a statement. “Instead, it holds pharmaceutical companies hostage, jeopardizing their future innovation and the well-being of American patients.”
Aides to Mr. Biden’s campaign said a debate among Republicans about the cost of medical care was one they were eager to have.
“The MAGA Republicans running for president want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which would deliver a big win for Big Pharma and raise costs for the American people,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the president’s campaign manager , which refers to Republicans loyal to former President Donald J. Trump.
He said the election choice was between Mr. Biden and “a slate of candidates committed to extreme policies that put their wealthy donors first.”
Robert Jimison contributed reporting.
