To the surprise of some, healthcare wound its way into Monday night’s debate – though the matter only garnered a brief mention by GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
The topic of discussion was foreign policy, after all. But that didn’t stop the candidates from returning homeward, and talking about education, teachers, jobs, the economy and balancing the budget – and that is where Romney pointed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“You look at how we get to a balanced budget within eight to 10 years," said Romney. "We do it by reducing spending in a whole series of programs: Number one, I get rid of is Obamacare. There are a number of things that sound good, but frankly, we just can’t afford them. And that one doesn’t sound good and it’s not affordable. So I’d get rid of that one from day one. To the extent humanly possible, we get that out.”
[See also: ACA polarizes voters despite lack of understanding of legislation]
To what extent repealing the ACA is actually possible is a matter of some debate, of course, and has been throughout the campaign season as Romney has vowed, if elected, both to offer states the ability to waive out of health reform on his first day in office, and to ultimately repeal the ACA altogether.
“Number two, we take some programs that we are going to keep, like Medicaid, which is a program for the poor; we’ll take that healthcare program for the poor and we give it to the states to run because states run these programs more efficiently,” said Romney. “As a governor, I thought ‘please, give me this program. I can run this more efficiently than the federal government.’ And states, by the way, are proving it.”
Romney pointed to Arizona and Rhode Island as states that have taken Medicaid funding and run the programs successfully.
That was it for healthcare in the third debate.
[See also: Romney argues for individual mandate in Mass., against it nationally]
President Obama rebutted by saying that Romney’s “math doesn’t work,” when it comes to balancing the budget but he did not mention healthcare specifically in doing so.
A CBS Instapoll, conducted immediately after the debate, “gave a clear victory to the President,” as 53 percent of respondents said Obama won, 23 percent favored Romney and 24 percent called it a draw. That’s among the 521 uncommitted voters CBS surveyed. A Forbes poll, meanwhile, gave Obama the slight edge, at 52-48, but pointed out that "both men 'won' their base of voters."