'Heartless crusade': Biden urges Trump to drop lawsuit to dismantle Affordable Care Act as coronavirus surges

'He's like a child who can't believe this happened to him, all his whining and self-pity'

Previewing his campaign's healthcare platform as he prepares to face Donald Trump in November, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has demanded the president drop a lawsuit aimed at repealing a health care law that could strip coverage from 23 million Americans.

"I can't comprehend the cruelty that's driving him to inflict this pain on the very people he's supposed to serve," the former vice president said in prepared remarks in Pennsylvania. "I think it's cruel, it's heartless, it's callous, and it's all because in my view he can't abide the thought of letting stand" a signature policy from his predecessor Barack Obama.

The president has repeatedly sought to strip crucial protections in the law, including a recent antidiscrimination policy that prevents health providers and doctors from refusing to cover LGBT+ people.

Mr Biden said Americans are "caught in a vice" from the president's "twin legacies": a failure to protect people from coronavirus and a "heartless crusade" to dismantle the ACA.

Speaking directly to the president, the candidate renewed his call for Mr Trump to "drop the lawsuit".

Following his Republican allies' failed efforts over several years to "repeal and replace" the ACA, the president awaits a ruling from the US Supreme Court over his challenge to the law.

In 2017, Congress ultimately voted to remove the individual mandate portion of the law, removing a tax penalty for people who did not have health insurance.

But several states filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional, arguing that removing a key provision should invalidate the rest of the law.

Its repeal would could not only endanger coverage for millions of people but would remove other protections, including a rule that prevents insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and mandates on prescription drug costs, among other provisions.

The president has falsely claimed dozens of times that he's saving coverage for pre-existing conditions, but a Supreme Court ruling in his favour could remove that provision entirely, and his administration hasn't presented any alternatives.

The ACA also expanded Medicaid coverage to more than half the US and has enrolled millions of people in the so-called "coverage gap" who were previously ineligible for the public plan.

Pointing to widespread Covid-19 testing as a solution to reopening the economy, Mr Biden condemned the president's false claims, including his March statement that "anybody that wants a test" could get one.

"It simply was not true and he knew it," Mr Biden said.

He also slammed remarks at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and his subsequent defence — in which he admitted telling his administration to "slow the testing down". His campaign and the White House have said he was making a tongue-in-cheek statement, and his top health officials told Congress this week that they were never told to do so. The president, however, told reporters "I don't kid".

Mr Biden said the president's assessment of testing as a "double-edged sword" means that "the other edge is he thinks that finding out more Americans are sick will make him look bad."

The nation's coronavirus death toll has climbed to more than 120,000. Cases in more than two dozen states are surging several months after the onset of the pandemic.

"He's like a child who can't believe this happened to him, all his whining and self-pity," Mr Biden said. "His job isn't to whine about it but to do something about it, to lead."

Mr Biden said his campaign will introduce a new healthcare platform in the coming days, promising "lower premiums" and an end to "surprise billings" from insurers.

The former vice president said his plan gets the US "closer" to universal coverage but he has not supported efforts to expand Medicare under a Medicare for All platform supported by former candidate Bernie Sanders and progressive Democrats.

As many as 40 million Americans could become uninsured amid the pandemic and economic fallout, as Americans lose their employer-supported coverage or leave the ACA insurance marketplace eligibility because of a lower income, according to Health Management Associates. In May, the Economic Police Institute estimated as many as 16.2 million people already lost their coverage. State Medicaid programs also are bracing for a surge in new enrolments while facing slashed budgets.

"If you're sick, if you're struggling, if you're worried about how you're going to get through the day, I will not abandon you," Mr Biden said. "I will not leave you to face these challenges alone, and we're going to get through this together."