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 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 stated 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, ultimately, 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 latest well being care theme — that as president, Donald Trump sought to avoid wasting the Reasonably priced Care Act — and acknowledged that he would help a nationwide abortion ban.
Walz described how well being care seemed earlier than the ACA in contrast with right now. 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 stated he had a plan to interchange the ACA that by no means surfaced. Vance pointed to regulatory modifications superior through the Trump administration, used weedy phrases like “reinsurance laws,” and floated the concept of permitting states “to experiment somewhat bit on the right way to cowl each the chronically unwell however the non-chronically unwell.”
Walz responded with a fast quip: “Right here’s the place being an outdated man provides you some historical past.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 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 essential.
“What Sen. Vance simply defined is likely to be worse than an idea, as a result of what he defined is pre-Obamacare,” Walz stated.
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 observe.
The Reasonably priced Care Act:
Vance: “Donald Trump may have destroyed the [Affordable Care Act]. As an alternative, he labored in a bipartisan means to make sure that Individuals had entry to inexpensive care.”
False.
As president, Trump labored to undermine and repeal the Reasonably priced 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 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, decreasing 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.
Reasonably priced Care Act enrollment declined by greater than 2 million individuals throughout Trump’s presidency, and the variety of uninsured Individuals 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 Individuals 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 health care provider who presides over an abortion the place the infant survives, the physician is beneath no obligation to supply lifesaving care to a child who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
False.
Consultants stated instances by 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 toddler inside a yr of its delivery, is prohibited in each state.
In Could 2023, Walz, as Minnesota governor, signed laws updating a state regulation for “infants who’re born alive.” It stated infants are “absolutely acknowledged” as human individuals and due to this fact protected beneath state regulation. The change didn’t alter laws that already required docs to supply sufferers with acceptable care.
Beforehand, state regulation stated, “All cheap measures in keeping with good medical follow, together with the compilation of acceptable medical information, 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 delivery, 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 advised 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 stated.
Vance supported a nationwide abortion ban earlier than turning into Trump’s working mate.
CBS Information moderator Margaret Brennan advised Vance, “You’ve supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Actually, you stated if somebody can’t help laws like that, quote, ‘you make the US probably the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anyplace in your complete world.’ My query is, why have you ever modified your place?”
Vance stated 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 stated, “I actually would love abortion to be unlawful nationally.” In November, he advised reporters that “we are able to’t give in to the concept that the federal Congress has no function on 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 ought to be left as much as the states.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
A girl’s 2022 dying in Georgia following the state passing its six-week abortion ban was deemed “preventable.”
Walz talked in regards to the dying 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 decide 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 usually utilized in abortions, and any physician who violated Georgia’s regulation might 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 dying “preventable,” in response to the report, and stated the hospital’s delay in performing the process had a “massive” influence.
— Samantha Putterman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
What Venture 2025 Says About Some Types of Contraception, Fertility Remedies
Walz stated that Venture 2025 would “make it harder, if not inconceivable, to get contraception and restrict entry, if not eradicate entry, to fertility therapies.”
Principally False. The Venture 2025 doc doesn’t name for proscribing commonplace contraceptive strategies, similar to contraception capsules, but it surely defines emergency contraceptives as “abortifacients” and says they need to be eradicated from the Reasonably priced Care Act’s lined preventive companies. Emergency contraception, similar to Plan B and ella, will not be thought of abortifacients, in response to 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 incorporates language that helps authorized rights for fetuses and embryos. Consultants 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 Venture 2025 is gonna have a registry of pregnancies.”
False.
Venture 2025 recommends that states submit extra detailed abortion reporting to the federal authorities. It requires extra details about how and when abortions passed off, 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 ladies.
Fentanyl and Opioids:
Vance: “Kamala Harris let in fentanyl into our communities at report ranges.”
Principally False.
Illicit fentanyl seizures have been rising for years and reached report highs beneath Biden’s administration. In fiscal yr 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 yr 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. by the southern border primarily at official ports of entry. It’s largely smuggled in by U.S. residents, in response to the U.S. Sentencing Fee. Most illicit fentanyl within the U.S. comes from Mexico made with chemical substances from Chinese language labs.
Drug coverage specialists have stated 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.
Consultants have additionally stated Congress performs a task in decreasing illicit fentanyl. Congressional funding for extra automobile 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.”
Principally True.
Overdose deaths involving opioids decreased from an estimated 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023, primarily based on the latest provisional knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. This lower, which passed off 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 total drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nonetheless, the opioid dying toll stays a lot larger than only a few years in the past, in response 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 thought of Vance’s claims about Springfield’s emergency rooms being overwhelmed.
“This declare will not be correct,” stated Chris Cook dinner, well being commissioner for Springfield’s Clark County.
Comparability knowledge from the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers tracks what number of sufferers are “left with out being seen” as a part of its effort to characterize whether or not ERs are in a position to deal with their affected person masses. Excessive percentages often sign that the ability doesn’t have the employees or assets to supply well timed and efficient emergency care.
Cook dinner stated that the full-service hospital, Mercy Well being Springfield Regional Medical Heart, studies its emergency division is at or higher than business commonplace in relation to 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 yr, the state and nationwide averages have been 1% and a pair of%, respectively. One other CMS 2024 knowledge level reveals 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 ladies’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 go away into regulation in 2023 and it’ll take impact in 2026.
The regulation will present workers 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 cut up between employers and staff.
— Amy Sherman of PolitiFact, on the dwell weblog
