Covering pre-existing conditions or returning to pre-Obamacare? VP hopefuls Vance, Walz debate health care

Health care was on the agenda for the debate between Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (left) and Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, hosted Oct. 1, 2024, by CBS News.
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Health care was on the agenda in the debate between vice presidential hopefuls Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, when they met Oct. 1.

CBS News hosted their only debate, which lasted 90 minutes, and was moderated by journalists Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan. The CBS News team then fact-checked it for accuracy about their claims, including assertions about health care policies.

Asking about health care, O’Donnell recalled the debate between presidential contenders former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump stated he had “concepts of a plan” to reform the U.S. health care system, she said, and Vance has talked about changing how chronically ill Americans get health insurance. She asked Vance to explain and for a guarantee people with pre-existing conditions won’t have to pay more.

“Well, of course, we're going to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions,” Vance said, noting a lot of his family members got off Medicaid and onto private insurance during Trump’s tenure.

“A lot of people have criticized this ‘concepts of a plan’ remark,” Vance said. “I think it's very simple common sense. I think, as Tim Walz knows from twelve 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.”

Vance touted Trump’s efforts to improve price transparency for hospitals.

In his response, Walz said “here’s where being an old guy gives you some history,” and he was at the creation of the Affordable Care Act. Minnesota is home to the Mayo Clinic, 3M, Medtronic and more, and is ranked first on affordability and accessibility and quality of health care.

Under the administration of Harris and President Joe Biden, more people are covered by health insurance than ever before, Walz said. He recounted Trump’s efforts to sign an executive order to repeal Obamacare and further work to overturn it with Congress and the Supreme Court.

Now, Harris has led efforts to negotiate Medicare drug prices for the first time, Walz said. A former teacher and coach, he pounced on Trump’s concept of a plan remark.

“It cracked me up as a fourth grade teacher because my kids would have never given me that,” Walz said. He argued another Trump administration would bring a return of pre-Obamacare, with health insurance companies picking their insureds, but kicking out people who are older or have cancer.

Vance countered that Obamacare was crushing under its own weight and young, healthy people were leaving the health insurance exchanges. Trump helped the program and now wants to make the health insurance marketplace function better, he said.

The two had an exchange about the ACA’s individual mandate for health insurance, and Walz said Harris will protect the ACA.

Destroy Obamacare?

CBS News rated as false Vance’s claim that Trump could have destroyed Obamacare.

“Vance is contradicted by Trump, who posted in 2017 that he wanted to ‘let Obamacare fail and then come together and do a great health care plan’ to replace it,” the fact check article said.

Insulin prices

CBS News rated as partially true Walz’ claim that patients paid $800 for insulin before passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration targeted Novo Nordisk’s insulin pen products for the Medicare Drug Price Negoitation Program and said it had a list price of $495 for a 30-day supply in 2023.

Contraception

In the debate, Vance and Walz split over access and laws governing pregnancy care and abortion rights.

Walz claimed the Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda “to deconstruct the Administrative State,” would create a registry of pregnancies and make it more difficult or impossible to get contraception and infertility treatments.

That claim needs context, according to CBS News. Project 2025 does not call for a registry of pregnancies, but does call on more abortion reporting, the fact check report said.

Regarding late-term, botched abortions, Vance was misleading in describing a Minnesota law that Walz approved. “Vance’s statement omits key context about the law,” which stated that infants born alive shall be recognized as human persons with immediate legal protections.

Prescription drug prices

Vance claimed prescription drug prices are up about 7% under Harris’ leadership, but increased just 1.5% during the Trump presidency. That is false, according to CBS News. Prescription drug prices rose an estimated 11% from 2020 to 2022, and 9% from 2017 to 2019, according to figures from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Opioid deaths

Walz claimed the good news was that the last year has brought the largest decrease in opioid deaths in the nation’s history. That is partially true, according to CBS News, citing provisional figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walz exaggerated a 30% decline in Ohio, Vance’s home state, which had an estimated decline of 18% from March 2023 to March 2024.