Vice presidential candidates Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz met on the debate stage at CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on Tuesday night. Here's the skinny on what the candidates said about healthcare during the only vice presidential debate.
Republican VP Candidate Sen. J.D. Vance
Top quote: “I think that Donald Trump has earned the right to put in place some better healthcare policies. He's earned it because he did it successfully the first time.”
- Vance said that Americans with pre-existing conditions would not lose insurance coverage if Donald Trump wins the election: “Of course, we're going to cover Americans with preexisting conditions.”
- Vance covered for former President Donald Trump’s presidential debate comment that his team has “concepts of a plan” for reforming Obamacare: “A lot of people have criticized this ‘concepts of a plan’ remark. It's very simple, common sense I think. As Tim Walz notes from 12 years in Congress, you're not going to propose a 900-page bill standing on a debate stage, it would bore everybody to tears, and it wouldn't actually mean anything, because part of this is the give and take of bipartisan negotiation.”
- Trump supported hospital price transparency during his presidency: “He introduced pricing transparency. Think about healthcare. You go into a hospital, you try to buy something, and nobody knows what it actually costs. That price transparency will actually give American consumers a little bit more choice and will also drive down costs.”
- Trump improved Obamacare: “You don't have to agree with everything that President Trump has ever said or ever done, but when Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and healthcare costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program, instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans have access to affordable care.”
Democratic VP Candidate Gov. Tim Walz
Top quote: “I come from a major healthcare state, home of the Mayo Clinic, home to medical alley, 3M, Medtronic, all those. We understand healthcare. It's why we're ranked first on affordability and accessibility and quality of healthcare.”
- Trump will enable insurers to deny coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions: “What that means to you is you lose your [coverage for] pre-existing conditions. If you're sitting at home and you got asthma, too bad. If you're a woman, [you will] probably not [get coverage]. Broke your foot during football? Might kick you out.”
- Trump will reverse insurance coverage standards set in place by Obamacare: “What Senator Vance just explained might be worse than a concept because what he explained is pre-Obamacare. And I'll make this as simple as possible because I have done this for a long time. What they're saying is, 'If you're healthy, why should you be paying more?' So what they're going to do is let insurance companies pick who they insure.”
- Vance pressed Walz on his support of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act. He responded: “I think the idea of making sure the risk pool is broad enough to cover everyone, that's the only way insurance works.”
- Harris will strengthen the Affordable Care Act. "Look, people know that they need to be on healthcare. People expect it to be there. And when we are able to make it, and we are making it this way, when we incentivize people to be in the market, when we help people who might not be able to afford it get there, and we make sure then when you get sick and old, it's there for you.”
- Harris negotiated the cost of prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries: “The way she (Harris) made everything better was negotiating those 10 drugs on Medicare for the first time in American history.”