In the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the candidates quibbled about abortion and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Overall, the candidates talked about healthcare less than expected.
Abortion was the only healthcare issue that occupied substantial air time during the September 10 debate in Philadelphia. ABC News moderator David Muir asked Trump early on in the debate if he would veto a national abortion ban. The former President did not give a straight answer.
Trump stuck to the point that he succeeded in turning the abortion question into a states' issue. Trump took credit for transforming the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States during his term which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“This issue has torn our country apart for 52 years," Trump said. He said he helped remedy the contentious issue by turning it into a states' issue. Trump pointed to the examples of Ohio and Kansas, states that put the right to abortion on the ballot in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Ohioans and Kansans voted to maintain the right to abortion in their states. Trump said the results “turned out more liberal than we thought” but seemed to take no issue with the outcomes. He said the examples demonstrated his success in allowing both states’ residents to make a decision on abortion access.
Harris hammered on what the national abortion landscape would look like under a second Trump presidency. She filled in the gaps Trump left in his answers with many of her own projections.
Harris said Trump would institute a national abortion ban that would not allow for exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest. She said that Trump would create a monitor for pregnancies and miscarriages in the country.
But perhaps more poignantly, Harris evoked images of women who have been denied reproductive healthcare since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, tapping into the feelings of women navigating complicated straits to obtain an abortion, or being left to their own devices.
Harris drove home the point that most Americans do not want the government to decide what they can do with their bodies.
In way of her own policy on abortion, Harris said she would reinstate the protections of Roe v. Wade through legislation, saying she would “proudly sign” a bill that secured the national right to abortion.
Besides abortion, healthcare was not a major focus of the debate. Near the end of the 90-minute debate, when both candidates were clearly fading from the 90 minutes of discussion, Muir called out Harris’ previous views on wanting to do away with private healthcare insurance.
Harris said she no longer holds that view and that she supports private healthcare coverage.
The ensuing discussion about public healthcare coverage, Obamacare and the ACA was muddled, but the candidates mostly stuck to the predictable party-aligned answers.
Trump expressed his distaste for Obamacare, but said he improved it during his time in office. He said a public healthcare option should be lower cost than Obamacare and that if such a plan came across his desk, he would sign it.
Trump also accused Harris of wanting "everyone to be on government healthcare."
When asked if he has a plan for replacing Obamacare, Trump responded vaguely but affirmatively, saying he has “concepts of a plan.”
Harris, for her part, said she would expand the ACA, which she said has improved the lives of Americans by eliminating the ability for insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. She pointed to Trump’s handling of the ACA during his administration and said he tried to get rid of the ACA 60 times.
Harris shared a memory from her time as a U.S. Senator for California during the Trump presidency when the late Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, gave a stirring speech on the Senate floor denouncing Trump’s attempt to repeal the ACA.
Harris briefly mentioned the Biden administration’s wins on Medicare drug price negotiations and capping the price of insulin and inhalers.