During the second presidential debate Sunday night, a member of the Town Hall audience posed a question about the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare” for President Barack Obama’s championship of the health care reform statute.
“The Affordable Care Act is not affordable,” the audience member at Washington University in St. Louis said, addressing the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, respectively. “What will you do to bring the costs down?”
“Go ahead, Donald,” Clinton said, deferring to her opponent for the first response.
“No, I’m a gentleman, Hillary,” Trump replied. “Go ahead.”
In her response, Clinton agreed that health care costs are too high. She vowed, “I’m going to fix it.”
Trump, on the other hand, said that “Obamacare will never work. It’s very bad.” He called the act a “total disaster” and cited his proposal to let health insurers sell plans across state boundaries, thereby increasing competition in the market.
Prior to the debate, Donald Trump had been roundly criticized for lewd statements he made in a video clip that recently surfaced in which he discussed groping women with impunity. His campaign seemed to have been in crisis mode as a number of top Republican leaders pulled their support from the nominee.