Harris, Biden stress importance of health care

U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris says that each vote for President-elect Joe Biden was in support of Affordable Care Act he helped craft during Obama ministration.

During remarks Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris said that Biden "won election decisively," and that "every vote for Joe Biden was a statement that health care in America should be a right, t a privilege."

Harris also ted that, if Affordable Care Act is dismantled, "communities of color would be hit particularly hard ... because y are at a greater risk for preexisting conditions," as well as complications from coronavirus.

Harris spoke ahe of remarks from Biden and following oral arguments in U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier Tuesday, justices heard oral arguments from opponents of health care program, arguing 10-year-old statute was rendered unconstitutional in its entirety when Congress dialed down to zero a penalty on those remaining uninsured.

President-elect Joe Biden says that Republican-backed challenge to Affordable Care Act in Supreme Court is "cruel and needlessly divisive." But he's promising that, regardless of outcome of that lawsuit, he will enact reforms to expand cover when he's in office next January.

During remarks Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden warned that if GOP-backed lawsuit is successful millions of Americans would lose health care cover during coronavirus pandemic. He characterized lawsuit as an "effort to bypass will of American people, verdict of courts in past, judgments of Congress," ting that ACA h weared previous court challenges and legislative efforts to dismantle it.