KFF Health News and PolitiFact staffs
Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz met in an Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News that was cordial and heavy on coverage dialogue — a placing 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 talk. But they have been extra pointed of their assaults on their rival’s working mate for challenges going through the nation, together with immigration and inflation.
The moderators, “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, had stated they deliberate to encourage candidates to fact-check one another, however generally clarified statements from the candidates.
After Vance made assertions about Springfield, Ohio, being overrun by “illegal immigrants,” Brennan identified that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are within the nation legally. Vance objected and, ultimately, CBS exercised the talk floor rule that allowed the community to chop off the candidates’ microphones.
Most factors weren’t fact-checked in actual time by the moderators. Vance resurfaced a latest well being care theme — that as president, Donald Trump sought to save lots of the Affordable Care Act — and acknowledged that he would help a nationwide abortion ban.
Walz described how well being care appeared earlier than the ACA in contrast with at this time. Vance provided particulars about Trump’s well being care “concepts of a plan” — a reference to feedback Trump made throughout the presidential debate that drew jeers and criticism for the previous president, who for years stated he had a plan to switch the ACA that by no means surfaced. Vance pointed to regulatory modifications superior throughout the Trump administration, used weedy phrases like “reinsurance regulations,” and floated the thought of permitting states “to experiment a little bit on how to cover both the chronically ill but the non-chronically ill.”
Walz responded with a fast quip: “Here’s where being an old guy gives you some history. I was there at the creation of the ACA.” He stated 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 vital.
“What Sen. Vance just explained might be worse than a concept, because what he explained is pre-Obamacare,” Walz stated.
The candidates sparred on quite a few subjects. Our PolitiFact partners fact-checked the debate here and on their live blog.
The health-related excerpts comply with.
The Affordable Care Act:
Vance: “Donald Trump could have destroyed the [Affordable Care Act]. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
As president, Trump labored to undermine and repeal the Affordable 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 client 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 health 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 youngsters, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that features three years of Trump’s presidency. The variety of insured Americans rose once more throughout the Biden administration.
Abortion and Reproductive Health:
Vance: “As I read the Minnesota law that [Walz] signed into law … it says that a doctor who presides over an abortion where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
Experts stated circumstances through which a child is born following an tried abortion are uncommon. Less than 1% of abortions nationwide happen within the third trimester. And infanticide, the crime of killing a toddler inside a yr of its delivery, is prohibited in each state.
In May 2023, Walz, as Minnesota governor, signed laws updating a state regulation for “infants who are born alive.” It stated infants are “fully recognized” as human individuals and subsequently protected beneath state regulation. The change didn’t alter laws that already required medical doctors to supply sufferers with applicable care.
Previously, state regulation stated, “All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” The regulation was up to date to as a substitute say medical personnel should “care for the infant who is born alive.”
When there are fetal anomalies that make it possible the fetus will die earlier than or quickly after delivery, some dad and mom resolve to terminate the being pregnant by inducing childbirth in order that they will maintain their dying child, Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade advised PolitiFact in September.
This replace to the regulation means infants who’re “born alive” obtain applicable medical care depending on the being pregnant’s circumstances, Maye Quade stated.
Vance supported a nationwide abortion ban earlier than changing into Trump’s working mate.
CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan advised Vance, “You have supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. In fact, you said if someone can’t support legislation like that, quote, ‘you are making the United States the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anywhere in the entire world.’ My question is, why have you changed your position?”
Vance stated that he “never supported a national ban” and, as a substitute, beforehand supported setting “some minimum national standard.”
But in a January 2022 podcast interview, Vance stated, “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” In November, he advised reporters that “we can’t give in to the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this matter.”
Since becoming a member of the Trump ticket, Vance has aligned his abortion rhetoric to match Trump’s and has stated that abortion laws must be left as much as the states.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
A lady’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 lady who died after her care was delayed due to the state’s six-week abortion regulation. A choose referred to as the regulation unconstitutional this week.
A Sept. 16 ProPublica report discovered that Thurman had taken abortion capsules and encountered a uncommon complication. She sought care at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Atlanta to clear extra fetal tissue from her uterus, referred to as a dilation and curettage, or D&C. The process is often utilized in abortions, and any physician who violated Georgia’s regulation might be prosecuted and resist a decade in jail.
Doctors waited 20 hours to lastly function, when Thurman’s organs have been already failing, ProPublica reported. A panel of well being specialists tasked with inspecting pregnancy-related deaths to enhance maternal well being deemed Thurman’s loss of life “preventable,” based on the report, and stated the hospital’s delay in performing the process had a “large” influence.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
What Project 2025 Says About Some Forms of Contraception, Fertility Treatments
Walz stated that Project 2025 would “make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception and limit access, if not eliminate access, to fertility treatments.”
Mostly False. The Project 2025 doc doesn’t name for limiting customary contraceptive strategies, akin to contraception capsules, but it surely defines emergency contraceptives as “abortifacients” and says they need to be eradicated from the Affordable Care Act’s coated preventive providers. Emergency contraception, akin to Plan B and ella, are not considered abortifacients, based on medical specialists.
PolitiFact didn’t discover any point out of in vitro fertilization all through the doc, or particular suggestions to curtail the follow within the U.S., but it surely accommodates language that helps authorized rights for fetuses and embryos. Experts say this language can threaten household planning strategies, together with IVF and a few types of contraception.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
Walz: “Their Project 2025 is gonna have a registry of pregnancies.”
Project 2025 recommends that states submit extra detailed abortion reporting to the federal authorities. It requires extra details about how and when abortions came about, in addition to different statistics for miscarriages and stillbirths.
The handbook doesn’t point out, nor name for, a brand new federal company tasked with registering pregnant girls.
Fentanyl and Opioids:
Vance: “Kamala Harris let in fentanyl into our communities at record levels.”
Mostly False.
Illicit fentanyl seizures have been rising for years and reached document highs beneath Biden’s administration. In fiscal yr 2015, for instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 70 pounds of fentanyl. As of August 2024, brokers have seized more than 19,000 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal yr 2024, which led to September.
But these are fentanyl seizures — not the quantity of the narcotic being “let” into the United States.
Vance made this declare whereas criticizing Harris’ immigration insurance policies. But fentanyl enters the U.S. by means of the southern border primarily at official ports of entry. It’s mostly smuggled in by U.S. residents, based on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Most illicit fentanyl within the U.S. comes from Mexico made with chemical compounds from Chinese labs.
Drug coverage specialists have stated 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.
Experts have additionally stated Congress plays a role 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 good news on this is, is the last 12 months saw the largest decrease in opioid deaths in our nation’s history.”
Mostly 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This lower, which came about within the second half of 2023, adopted a 67% improve 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. This is the first annual decrease in total drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nevertheless, the opioid loss of life toll stays a lot larger than only a few years in the past, according to KFF.
More Health-Related Comments:
Vance Said ‘Hospitals Are Overwhelmed.’ Local Officials Disagree.
We requested well being officers forward of the talk what they considered Vance’s claims about Springfield’s emergency rooms being overwhelmed.
“This claim is not accurate,” stated Chris Cook, well being commissioner for Springfield’s Clark County.
Comparison data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tracks what number of sufferers are “left without being seen” as a part of its effort to characterize whether or not ERs are capable of deal with their affected person masses. High percentages normally sign that the power doesn’t have the employees or sources to supply well timed and efficient emergency care.
Cook stated that the full-service hospital, Mercy Health Springfield Regional Medical Center, studies its emergency division is at or higher than trade customary on the subject of this metric.
In July 2024, 3% of Mercy Health’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 Health tallied 2% of sufferers who “left without being seen.” That yr, the state and nationwide averages have been 1% and a couple of%, respectively. Another CMS 2024 information level exhibits Mercy Health sufferers spent much less time within the ER 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 Center’s Jennifer Robinson famous that Mercy Health has seen excessive utilization of ladies’s well being, emergency, and first care providers.
— Stephanie Armour, Holly Hacker, and Stephanie Stapleton of KFF Health News, on the dwell weblog
Minnesota’s Paid Leave Takes Effect in 2026
Walz signed paid family leave into regulation in 2023 and it’ll take impact in 2026.
The law will present staff as much as 12 weeks of paid medical go away and as much as 12 weeks of paid household go away, which incorporates bonding with a toddler, caring for a member of the family, supporting survivors of home violence or sexual assault, and supporting active-duty deployments. A most 20 weeks can be found in a profit yr if somebody takes each medical and household go away.
Minnesota used a projected price range surplus to jump-start this system; funding will then shift to a payroll tax break up between employers and employees.
— Amy Sherman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
