Second 2016 Presidential Debate: on Health Care

Bill Weld: Tweak ObamaCare with more free market and more choices

Donald Trump: ObamaCare is a disaster. You know it, we all know it. It is going up at numbers that nobody has ever seen worldwide. Nobody has ever seen numbers like this for health care. It is only getting worse. In 2017, it implodes by itself. ObamaCare has pushed the uninsured rate to an all-time low of just over 9 percent while extending coverage to some 20 million people (including Medicaid expansion, exchanges and young adults on family plans). The uninsured rate would be lower still had the 19 holdout states expanded Medicaid.

Bill Weld: I would tweak ObamaCare to make it work better--more market mechanisms, greater role for doctors and patients, narrow the individual mandate.

Donald Trump: ObamaCare will never work; repeal it and replace it

We have to get rid of the lines around the state, artificial lines, where we stop insurance companies from coming in and competing, because that gives the insurance companies essentially monopolies. We want competition.

You will have the finest health care plan there is. She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similar to Canada. And if you haven't noticed the Canadians, when they need a big operation, when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow. It's catastrophic in certain ways.

Donald Trump: The whole of ObamaCare was a fraud

CLINTON: No, he clarified what he meant. If we were to start all over again, we might come up with a different system. But we have an employer-based system. So let's fix what's broken about it, but let's not throw it away.

TRUMP: First of all, everything's broken about it. Everything.

Q: You've said you want to end ObamaCare, but you've also said you want to make coverage accessible for people with pre-existing conditions. How?

TRUMP: We're going to be able to. You're going to have plans that are so good, because we're going to have so much competition in the insurance industry.

Q: Are you going to have a mandate?

TRUMP: ObamaCare, by the way, was a fraud. Jonathan Gruber, the architect of ObamaCare, said it was a great lie, it was a big lie. President Obama said you keep your doctor, you keep your plan. The whole thing was a fraud, and it doesn't work.

Gary Johnson: US needs free market approach to health care, not government

Gary Johnson: Bring competition to healthcare! A free market approach is needed, and recognize that healthcare is far removed from the free market.

Hillary Clinton: ObamaCare benefits the insured as well as the uninsured

1. Insurance companies can't deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
2. No lifetime limits, which is a big deal if you have serious health problems.
3. Women can't be charged more than men for our health insurance, which is the way it used to be before the Affordable Care Act.
4. If you're under 26, and your parents have a policy, you can be on that policy until the age of 26.

Hillary Clinton: I'll fix ObamaCare; they'll repeal it

CLINTON: Donald says he's going to solve it by repealing it and getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. And I'm going to fix it, because I agree that premiums have gotten too high. Copays, deductibles, prescription drug costs--I've laid out a series of actions that we can take to try to get those costs down. I want very much to save what works and is good about the Affordable Care Act, but we've got to get costs down. Right now, we are at 90 percent health insurance coverage. That's the highest we've ever been in our country. I want us to get to 100 percent, but get costs down and keep quality up.

TRUMP: ObamaCare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it. It's going up at numbers that nobody's ever seen for health care. It's only getting worse. In '17, it implodes by itself. Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money, more and more money. ObamaCare will never work.

Jill Stein: Medicare-for-all better & cheaper than ObamaCare

Donald Trump: ObamaCare will never work. It's too expensive, and not only expensive for the person that has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. We have to repeal it. We have to get rid of the lines around the state, where we stop insurance companies from competing. We want competition. She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster.

Jill Stein: We need a Medicare-for-all system. 25 percent of healthcare costs are spent on wasteful paper pushing, on CEO salaries, on advertising, on exorbitant pharmaceutical costs like paying $400 for an EpiPen, which contains $1 worth of medication. Under an improved Medicare, that 25 percent overhead is reduced to 1 percent. It enables us to put our healthcare dollars truly into healthcare, so that you are covered, head to toe, cradle to grave.