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 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 controversy. However they had 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 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,” Brennan identified that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are within the nation legally. Vance objected and, finally, CBS exercised the controversy 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 current well being care theme — that as president, Donald Trump sought to save lots of the Inexpensive Care Act — and acknowledged that he would assist a nationwide abortion ban.
Walz described how well being care seemed earlier than the ACA in contrast with right this moment. Vance supplied particulars about Trump’s well being care “ideas 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 mentioned 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 laws,” and floated the thought of permitting states “to experiment a bit of bit on how you can cowl each the chronically in poor health however the non-chronically in poor health.”
Walz responded with a fast quip: “Right here’s the place being an previous 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 had been essential.
“What Sen. 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 companions fact-checked the controversy right here and on their dwell weblog.
The health-related excerpts comply with.
The Inexpensive Care Act:
Vance: “Donald Trump might have destroyed the [Affordable Care Act]. As an alternative, he labored in a bipartisan manner to make sure that People had entry to reasonably priced care.”
As president, Trump labored to undermine and repeal the Inexpensive Care Act. He lower 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 offered 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.
Inexpensive Care Act enrollment declined by greater than 2 million individuals throughout Trump’s presidency, and the variety of uninsured People 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 People rose once more throughout the Biden administration.
Abortion and Reproductive Well being:
Vance: “As I learn the Minnesota regulation that [Walz] signed into regulation … it says that a health care provider who presides over an abortion the place the child survives, the physician is underneath no obligation to supply lifesaving care to a child who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
Specialists mentioned circumstances through which 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 beginning, 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 “totally acknowledged” as human individuals and due to this fact protected underneath state regulation. The change didn’t alter laws that already required docs to supply sufferers with applicable care.
Beforehand, state regulation mentioned, “All cheap measures per good medical observe, together with the compilation of applicable 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 “take care of the toddler who’s born alive.”
When there are fetal anomalies that make it seemingly the fetus will die earlier than or quickly after beginning, some mother and father determine to terminate the being pregnant by inducing childbirth in order that they’ll 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 mentioned.
Vance supported a nationwide abortion ban earlier than turning into Trump’s working mate.
CBS Information moderator Margaret Brennan advised Vance, “You’ve got supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Actually, you mentioned if somebody can’t assist laws like that, quote, ‘you make the USA essentially the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anyplace in the complete 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 normal.”
However in a January 2022 podcast interview, Vance mentioned, “I actually would love abortion to be unlawful nationally.” In November, he advised reporters that “we will’t give in to the concept 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 ought to be left as much as the states.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
A lady’s 2022 demise in Georgia following the state passing its six-week abortion ban was deemed “preventable.”
Walz talked concerning the demise 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 choose referred to 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, 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 could possibly be prosecuted and withstand a decade in jail.
Medical doctors waited 20 hours to lastly function, when Thurman’s organs had been already failing, ProPublica reported. A panel of well being consultants tasked with inspecting pregnancy-related deaths to enhance maternal well being deemed Thurman’s demise “preventable,” in line with the report, and mentioned the hospital’s delay in performing the process had a “giant” affect.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
What Undertaking 2025 Says About Some Types of Contraception, Fertility Remedies
Walz mentioned that Undertaking 2025 would “make it tougher, if not unimaginable, to get contraception and restrict entry, if not remove entry, to fertility remedies.”
Largely False. The Undertaking 2025 doc doesn’t name for proscribing normal contraceptive strategies, resembling contraception tablets, but it surely defines emergency contraceptives as “abortifacients” and says they need to be eradicated from the Inexpensive Care Act’s coated preventive companies. Emergency contraception, resembling Plan B and ella, will not be thought of abortifacients, in line with medical consultants.
PolitiFact didn’t discover any point out of in vitro fertilization all through the doc, or particular suggestions to curtail the observe within the U.S., but it surely incorporates 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 dwell weblog
Walz: “Their Undertaking 2025 is gonna have a registry of pregnancies.”
Undertaking 2025 recommends that states submit extra detailed abortion reporting to the federal authorities. It requires extra details about how and when abortions occurred, 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 document ranges.”
Largely False.
Illicit fentanyl seizures have been rising for years and reached document highs underneath 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 resulted in September.
However these are fentanyl seizures — not the quantity of the narcotic being “let” into the USA.
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 largely smuggled in by U.S. residents, in line 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 consultants have mentioned that the illicit fentanyl disaster started years earlier than Biden’s administration and that Biden’s border insurance policies are to not blame for overdose deaths.
Specialists have additionally mentioned Congress performs a task 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 referred to as for elevated enforcement in opposition to illicit fentanyl use.
Walz: “And the excellent news on that is, is the final 12 months noticed the biggest lower in opioid deaths in our nation’s historical past.”
Largely True.
Overdose deaths involving opioids decreased from an estimated 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023, primarily based on the newest provisional knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. This lower, which occurred 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 lower in general drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nonetheless, the opioid demise toll stays a lot greater than just some years in the past, in line with KFF.
Extra Well being-Associated Feedback:
Vance Mentioned ‘Hospitals Are Overwhelmed.’ Native Officers Disagree.
We requested well being officers forward of the controversy what they thought of Vance’s claims about Springfield’s emergency rooms being overwhelmed.
“This declare isn’t correct,” mentioned Chris Prepare dinner, well being commissioner for Springfield’s Clark County.
Comparability knowledge from the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies tracks what number of sufferers are “left with out being seen” as a part of its effort to characterize whether or not ERs are capable of deal with their affected person hundreds. Excessive percentages normally sign that the power doesn’t have the employees or assets to supply well timed and efficient emergency care.
Prepare dinner mentioned that the full-service hospital, Mercy Well being Springfield Regional Medical Heart, experiences its emergency division is at or higher than business normal in relation to this metric.
In July 2024, 3% of Mercy Well being’s sufferers had been counted within the “left-without-being-seen” class — the identical stage 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 had been 1% and a couple of%, respectively. One other CMS 2024 knowledge level exhibits Mercy Well being 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 Heart’s Jennifer Robinson famous that Mercy Well being has seen excessive utilization of girls’s well being, emergency, and first care companies.
— Stephanie Armour, Holly Hacker, and Stephanie Stapleton of KFF Well being Information, on the dwell weblog
Minnesota’s Paid Go away Takes Impact in 2026
Walz signed paid household depart into regulation in 2023 and it’ll take impact in 2026.
The regulation 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 or 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 price range 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 dwell weblog