Joe Biden in Lancaster talking to families about Affordable Care Act
With just 130 days left until the election, former Vice President Joe Biden's subtle campaign swung into an unlikely place Thursday: Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
He met with families - in a private campaign visit - that have benefited from the Affordable Care Act, an expansion of healthcare access, passed in 2010.
Lancaster County is a Republican stronghold, as 57 percent of voters here chose Donald Trump in 2016. So, why stop in this county for a visit?
Lancaster city itself has overwhelmingly voted Democratic, and one of the party's local leaders said the county is getting a little more blue each year.
It's also a refugee resettlement area, dubbed by the BBC last year as the "refugee capital of America."
Agatha Asiimwe moved to Lancaster County from Uganda five years ago with her husband and three children. In their native country, they didn't need health insurance, as doctor visits and prescriptions were affordable and paid out of pocket.
"My brother was here before us, so he kind of oriented us and things we need to do. He pointed out that we needed to get health insurance," Asiimwe said. "We went to different places, then we went to a social worker at (Lancaster General Health)."
It was there that Asiimwe learned about the Affordable Care Act's health marketplace, which they have used since. Asiimwe and her husband work, but they don't receive health insurance through their employers.
"It’s very important for people to access healthcare and high quality healthcare if they can’t afford it," said Nicole Specht, chief communications officer for the Lancaster Health Center, a non-profit with several clinics in the county. "We don’t stand on a political side; we stand on a medical access side."
Because of Lancaster's diverse population, the health center has worked with patients speaking 200 different languages, an unusual position for a city of 59,000 and a county of 546,000.
Biden's visit
Thursday's stop was the Democratic presidential candidate's fourth visit to Pennsylvania this month and came as President Donald Trump's case to end the Obama-era healthcare plan is before the U.S. Supreme Court.
"In the middle of a pandemic, Trump is trying to take away health insurance coverage from 23 million Americans as well as critical protections for people with pre-existing conditions," said an email from Biden's campaign.
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