Health Law Daily Wrap Up, GENERAL HEALTH CARE NEWS—VP candidates discuss ACA and abortion in policy-heavy debate, (Oct 2, 2024)

By Sheila Lynch-Afryl, J.D., M.A.

Similar to the presidential debate, both reproductive rights and the Affordable Care Act were prominent topics.

Abortion and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were major topics of discussion at the October 1 vice-presidential debate between Republican candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Democratic candidate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. In the policy-heavy debate, both Walz and Vance touted their running mates’ success in lowering drug prices. Despite former President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to repeal the ACA during his administration, Vance argued that Trump “salvaged” the ACA, which was “crushing under its own weight.” On the topic of reproductive rights, Walz characterized abortion as a “basic human right,” while Vance argued that “the proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy.”

Affordable Care Act. During the presidential debate, Trump criticized the ACA as being “lousy health care” but said he would “run it as good as it can be run” until he can “come up with something better and less expensive.” However, he declined to give details on his plan, saying he has “concepts of a plan.”

At the vice-presidential debate, when asked about the plan and how a Trump administration would protect people with pre-existing conditions, Vance said that “we currently have laws and regulations in place right now that protect people with pre-existing conditions,” and “we want to keep those regulations in place, but we also want to make the health insurance marketplace function a little bit better.” He argued that “when Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs,” Trump saved the program and “worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”

Walz countered that what Vance “just explained might be worse than a concept, because what he explained is pre-Obamacare” and argued that “what they're going to do is let insurance companies pick who they insure.” While Trump tried to repeal the ACA, “more people are covered than they have before” under Vice President Kamala Harris, who will “protect and enhance the ACA.”

Abortion. Walz noted Trump’s role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and characterized abortion as health care and a “basic human right,” not something that should be determined state by state. In particular, he highlighted medical crises experienced by specific women after they couldn’t access an abortion and, calling for the restoration of Roe, asked, “how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights as basic as the right to control your own body is determined on geography?” He also argued that Republican policies will limit access to contraception and fertility treatments.

Vance responded that on the issue of reproductive rights, Republicans need to “do so much better of a job at earning the American people's trust back on this issue where they frankly just don't trust us.” He wants the Republican party to be “pro-family in the fullest sense of the word,” including by supporting fertility treatments. He reiterated Trump’s argument that individual states should make their own abortion policies.

When asked whether he “supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks,” Vance said he never supported a national abortion ban and instead “talk[ed] about setting some minimum national standard.” During the presidential debate Trump hedged when asked if he would veto a national abortion ban. Last night, however, he posted on social media, “Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters.”

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