JD Vance seemed to back away from a proposal to separate healthy and sick people in insurance markets, which could cause major disruption for people with pre-existing conditions.
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“We want to keep those regulations in place,” Senator JD Vance said of the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday. “But we also want to make the health insurance marketplace function a little bit better.”
In the weeks before Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, Senator JD Vance sounded like someone who wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Vance, discussing how he would reform the 2010 health law, said he favored separating healthy and sick Americans into their own health insurance groups, an idea Republicans proposed in 2017 when they attempted to reverse the law.
But when pressed during the debate to explain how that would work, Mr. Vance appeared to back away from the idea, which health policy experts have said could significantly disrupt many Americans’ insurance coverage.
“We currently have laws and regulations in place, in place right now, that protect people with pre-existing conditions,” he said on Tuesday. “We want to keep those regulations in place, but we also want to make the health insurance marketplace function a little bit better.”
His shifting position was similar to that of his running mate, former President Donald J. Trump, who had also called for major overhauls to the Affordable Care Act in recent months before retreating. Mr. Vance’s comments also reflected the complicated politics of Obamacare for Republicans, who have largely given up broader attempts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act as it has grown in popularity and had record enrollment in its marketplaces.
The “laws and regulations” Mr. Vance referenced come directly from the Affordable Care Act, which required insurers to sell health coverage at a standard price to any American who wanted to buy a plan, regardless of age, sex or health history.
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