Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz met in an Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hosted by CBS Information that was cordial and heavy on coverage dialogue — a hanging change from the Sept. 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Vance and Walz acknowledged occasional settlement on coverage factors and respectfully addressed one another all through the controversy. However they have been extra pointed of their assaults on their rival’s operating mates for challenges going through the nation, together with immigration and inflation.
The moderators, “CBS Night Information” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, had mentioned they deliberate to encourage candidates to fact-check one another, however typically clarified statements from the candidates.
After Vance made assertions about Springfield, Ohio, being overrun by “unlawful immigrants,” Brennen identified that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are within the nation legally. Vance objected and, ultimately, CBS exercised the controversy floor rule that enables the community to chop off the candidates’ microphones.
Most factors weren’t reality checked in actual time by the moderators. Vance resurfaced a latest well being care theme – that as president, Donald Trump sought to avoid wasting the Inexpensive Care Act – and acknowledged that he would help a nationwide abortion ban.
Walz described how well being care appeared earlier than the ACA in comparison with at present. Vance provided particulars about Trump’s well being care “ideas of a plan” – a reference to feedback Trump made through the presidential debate that drew jeers and criticism for the previous president, who for years mentioned he had a plan to interchange the ACA that by no means surfaced. Vance pointed to regulatory adjustments superior through the Trump administration, used weedy phrases like “reinsurance laws” and floated the thought of permitting states “to experiment somewhat bit on tips on how to cowl each the chronically sick however the non-chronically sick.”
Walz responded with a fast quip: “Right here’s the place being an outdated man provides you some historical past. I used to be there on the creation of the ACA.” He mentioned that earlier than then insurers had extra energy to kick individuals off their plans. Then he detailed Trump’s efforts to undo the ACA in addition to why the regulation’s preexisting situation protections have been necessary.
“What Senator Vance simply defined is perhaps worse than an idea, as a result of what he defined is pre Obamacare,” Walz mentioned.
The candidates sparred on quite a few matters. Our PolitiFact partners fact-checked the debate here and on their live blog.
The health-related excerpts comply with.
The Inexpensive Care Act:
Vance: “Donald Trump might have destroyed the (Inexpensive Care Act). As an alternative, he labored in a bipartisan means to make sure that People had entry to inexpensive care.”
As president, Trump labored to undermine and repeal the Inexpensive Care Act. He reduce thousands and thousands of {dollars} in federal funding for ACA outreach and navigators who assist individuals join well being protection. He enabled the sale of short-term well being plans that don’t adjust to the ACA shopper protections and allowed them to be bought for longer durations, which siphoned individuals away from the well being regulation’s marketplaces.
Trump’s administration additionally backed state Medicaid waivers that imposed first-ever work necessities, lowering enrollment. He additionally ended insurance coverage firm subsidies that helped offset prices for low-income enrollees. He backed an unsuccessful repeal of the landmark 2010 well being regulation and he backed the demise of a penalty imposed for failing to buy medical insurance.
Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by greater than 2 million individuals throughout Trump’s presidency, and the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, together with 726,000 kids, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that features three years of Trump’s presidency. The variety of insured People rose once more through the Biden administration.
Abortion and Reproductive Well being:
Vance: “As I learn the Minnesota regulation that (Walz) signed into regulation … it says that a physician who presides over an abortion the place the infant survives, the physician is beneath no obligation to offer lifesaving care to a child who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
Specialists mentioned instances wherein a child is born following an tried abortion are uncommon. Lower than 1% of abortions nationwide happen within the third trimester. And infanticide, the crime of killing a baby inside a 12 months of its start, is against the law in each state.
In Could 2023, Walz, as Minnesota governor, signed laws updating a state regulation for “infants who’re born alive.” It mentioned infants are “absolutely acknowledged” as human individuals and subsequently, protected beneath state regulation. The change didn’t alter laws that already require docs to offer sufferers with acceptable care.
Beforehand, state regulation mentioned, “All affordable measures in keeping with good medical apply, together with the compilation of acceptable medical data, shall be taken by the accountable medical personnel to protect the life and well being of the born alive toddler.” The regulation was up to date to as a substitute say medical personnel should “look after the toddler who’s born alive.”
When there are fetal anomalies that make it probably the fetus will die earlier than or quickly after start, some dad and mom determine to terminate the being pregnant by inducing childbirth in order that they will maintain their dying child, Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade instructed PolitiFact in September.
This replace to the regulation means infants who’re “born alive” obtain acceptable medical care depending on the being pregnant’s circumstances, Maye Quade mentioned.
Vance supported a nationwide abortion ban earlier than turning into Trump’s operating mate.
CBS Information moderator Margaret Brennan instructed Vance, “You might have supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. In actual fact, you mentioned, if somebody can’t help laws like that, quote, ‘you’re making the US probably the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anyplace in your entire world.’ My query is, why have you ever modified your place?”
Vance mentioned that he “by no means supported a nationwide ban” and, as a substitute, beforehand supported setting “some minimal nationwide commonplace.”
However in a January 2022 podcast interview, Vance mentioned, “I actually would really like abortion to be unlawful nationally.” In November, he instructed reporters that “we are able to’t give in to the concept that the federal Congress has no position on this matter.”
Since becoming a member of the Trump ticket, Vance has aligned his abortion rhetoric to match Trump’s and has mentioned that abortion laws needs to be left as much as the states.
-Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the reside weblog
A girl’s 2022 loss of life in Georgia following the state passing its six-week abortion ban was deemed “preventable.”
Walz talked concerning the loss of life of 28-year-old Amber Thurman, a Georgia girl who died after her care was delayed due to the state’s six-week abortion regulation. A decide known as the regulation unconstitutional this week.
A Sept. 16 ProPublica report discovered that Thurman had taken abortion tablets and encountered a uncommon complication. She sought care at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Atlanta to clear extra fetal tissue from her uterus, known as a dilation and curettage, or D&C. The process is often utilized in abortions, and any physician who violated Georgia’s regulation could possibly be prosecuted and resist a decade in jail.
Docs waited 20 hours to lastly function, when Thurman’s organs have been already failing, ProPublica reported. A panel of well being specialists tasked with analyzing pregnancy-related deaths to enhance maternal well being, deemed Thurman’s loss of life “preventable,” in keeping with the report, and mentioned the hospital’s delay in performing the process had a “massive” influence.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the reside weblog
What Mission 2025 Says About Some Types of Contraception, Fertility Remedies
Walz mentioned that Mission 2025 would “make it harder, if not inconceivable, to get contraception and restrict entry, if not eradicate entry, to fertility remedies.”
Mostly False. The Mission 2025 doc doesn’t name for proscribing commonplace contraceptive strategies, reminiscent of contraception tablets, nevertheless it defines emergency contraceptives as “abortifacients” and says they need to be eradicated from the Inexpensive Care Act’s lined preventive companies. Emergency contraception, reminiscent of Plan B and Ella, are not considered abortifacients, in keeping with medical specialists.
PolitiFact didn’t discover any point out of in vitro fertilization all through the doc, or particular suggestions to curtail the apply within the U.S., nevertheless it accommodates language that helps authorized rights for fetuses and embryos. Specialists say this language can threaten household planning strategies, together with IVF and a few types of contraception.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the reside weblog
Walz: “Their Mission 2025 is gonna have a registry of pregnancies.”
Mission 2025 recommends that states submit extra detailed abortion reporting to the federal authorities. It requires extra details about how and when abortions happened, in addition to different statistics for miscarriages and stillbirths.
The guide doesn’t point out, nor name for, a brand new federal company tasked with registering pregnant ladies.
Fentanyl and Opioids:
Vance: “Kamala Harris let in fentanyl into our communities at file ranges.”
Principally False.
Illicit fentanyl seizures have been rising for years and reached file highs beneath Biden’s administration. In fiscal 12 months 2015, for instance, U.S. Customs and Border Safety seized 70 kilos of fentanyl. As of August 2024, brokers have seized greater than 19,000 kilos of fentanyl in fiscal 12 months 2024, which led to September.
However these are fentanyl seizures — not the quantity of the narcotic being “let” into the US.
Vance made this declare whereas criticizing Harris’ immigration insurance policies. However fentanyl enters the U.S. via the southern border primarily at official ports of entry. It’s mostly smuggled in by U.S. residents, in keeping with the U.S. Sentencing Fee. Most illicit fentanyl within the U.S. comes from Mexico made with chemical compounds from Chinese language labs.
Drug coverage specialists have mentioned that the illicit fentanyl disaster started years before Biden’s administration and that Biden’s border insurance policies are to not blame for overdose deaths.
Specialists have additionally said Congress performs a job in lowering illicit fentanyl. Congressional funding for extra car scanners would assist regulation enforcement seize extra of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. Harris has called for elevated enforcement towards illicit fentanyl use.
Walz: “And the excellent news on that is, is the final 12 months noticed the most important lower in opioid deaths in our nation’s historical past.”
Principally True.
Overdose deaths involving opioids decreased from an estimated 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023, primarily based on the newest provisional information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. This lower, which happened within the second half of 2023, adopted a 67% enhance in opioid-related deaths between 2017 and 2023.
The U.S. had an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in 2023 — a 3% lower from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. That is the first annual decrease in general drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nonetheless, the opioid loss of life toll stays a lot greater than just some years in the past, according to KFF.
Extra Well being-Associated Feedback:
Vance Stated ‘Hospitals Are Overwhelmed.’ Native Officers Disagree.
We requested well being officers forward of the controversy what they considered Vance’s claims about Springfield’s emergency rooms being overwhelmed.
“This declare isn’t correct,” mentioned Chris Cook dinner, well being commissioner for Springfield’s Clark County.
Comparison data from the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies tracks what number of sufferers are “left with out being seen” as a part of its effort to characterize whether or not emergency departments are capable of deal with their affected person hundreds. Excessive percentages normally sign that the ability doesn’t have the workers or sources to offer well timed and efficient emergency room care.
Cook dinner mentioned that the full-service hospital, Mercy Well being Springfield Regional Medical Middle, experiences its emergency division is at or higher than business commonplace in terms of this metric.
In July 2024, 3% of Mercy Well being’s sufferers have been counted within the “left-without-being-seen” class — the identical degree as each the state and nationwide common for high-volume hospitals. In July 2019, Mercy Well being tallied 2% of sufferers who “left with out being seen.” That 12 months, the state and nationwide averages have been 1% and a pair of%, respectively. One other Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies 2024 datapoint reveals Mercy Well being sufferers spent much less time within the emergency division per go to on common — 152 minutes — in contrast with state and nationwide figures: 183 minutes and 211 minutes, respectively. Even so, Springfield Regional Medical Middle’s Jennifer Robinson famous that Mercy Well being has seen excessive utilization of ladies’s well being, emergency, and first care companies.
— Stephanie Armour, Holly Hacker, and Stephanie Stapleton of KFF Well being Information, on the reside weblog
Minnesota’s Paid Depart Takes Impact in 2026
Walz signed paid family leave into law in 2023 and it’ll take impact in 2026.
The law will present staff as much as 12 weeks of paid medical depart and as much as 12 weeks of paid household depart, which incorporates bonding with a baby, caring for a member of the family, supporting survivors of home violence and sexual assault, and supporting active-duty deployments. A most 20 weeks can be found in a profit 12 months if somebody takes each medical and household depart.
Minnesota used a projected funds surplus to jump-start this system; funding will then shift to a payroll tax cut up between employers and employees.
— Amy Sherman of Politifact, on the reside weblog
KFF Health News is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is likely one of the core working packages at KFF—an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Study extra about KFF.
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