There was a gap in Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate — a glaring absence of discussion about an issue that has consumed this nation for the last seven and a half years and affects nearly 18 percent of our economy. The missing issue was health care reform, more specifically the Affordable Care Act that is popularly known as Obamacare.
Few pieces of legislation have been as bitterly debated and litigated and for as long a time as the ACA. President Obama first announced his intent to work with Congress on healthcare reform in February 2009, soon after his inauguration.
Congress debated the issue and by year’s end Democrats, without any support from Republicans in both the House of Representative and the Senate, had passed their own statutory versions. But opposition grew around the country and spawned the nascent tea party movement.
When Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown was elected in January 2010 to replace the recently deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy on a platform of blocking ACA passage, the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. In a controversial move, the Senate version of the legislation was adopted by the House and passed through the process of reconciliation.
Fierce opposition to the law remains. Polls show that a majority of the nation has opposed the law from its enactment until today. Multiple lawsuits have been initiated and the ACA has survived two Supreme Court reviews with more possibly on the way. News stories and editorials decrying rising insurance premiums, out-of-pocket expenses and drug prices appear daily.
Every Republican presidential candidate pledged to repeal Obamacare. Every Democratic candidate pledged to preserve and expand it. So why was the issue not discussed in the vice-presidential debate? The moderator did not ask a single question about it and Sen. Tim Kaine did not mention healthcare. Gov. Mike Pence, as part of a long answer to a general question, mentioned the “failing healthcare reform,” criticized Clinton and Kaine for wanting to expand it and noted that former President Bill Clinton had referred to it as, “the craziest thing in the world.” But other than pledging to repeal the ACA, Pence said nothing else.
Perhaps, the country is tired of the issue. After all, the House of Representatives has voted more than 60 times in seven years to repeal the ACA. Court cases come and go. But the statute has endured. Nevertheless, Gallup reports that both Democrats and Republicans consider healthcare and the ACA among the four top issues in this election.
Perhaps, there is an acceptance that after seven years the statute is here to stay. Yet neither party seems satisfied with the ACA as is. Republicans want to scale it back or repeal it altogether. Democrats want to expand it.
Maybe the media are to blame. The scandals, misstatements and gaffes of both presidential candidates are nearly unprecedented and they are attracting the most attention from press. It is not surprising that the debate moderator focused on these hot issues and other than a perfunctory question about preserving Social Security and Medicare asked nothing about healthcare.
Unfortunately, the media’s interests do not match the public’s, which is more concerned with healthcare than with the insults that both sides have been hurling against the other.
Whatever the reason, the failure of the vice-presidential candidates to discuss the future of the ACA and healthcare was a major disappointment. Healthcare remains a major issue for most Americans. No one is happy with the ACA and rising insurance and drug costs. Attention must be paid. It is hoped we will hear a detailed discussion of the future of American healthcare in the remaining presidential debates.
