Obamacare finally got its moment in the spotlight.
After being largely ignored during the first presidential debate, the Affordable Care Act received a good deal of attention from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sunday night as they offered competing views on what to do next with the landmark health-care reform law.
Clinton acknowledged that insurance premiums in Obamacare plans have "gotten too high" as have out-of-pocket costs for health insurance customers.
"I'm going to fix it," Clinton told an audience at Washington University in St. Louis. "I want very much to save what works and what is good about the ACA. But we've got to get costs down."
Trump shot back: "Obamacare will never work. It's very bad."
"Obamacare is a total disaster," Trump said, as he promised to replace the ACA with "the finest health-care plan there is."
Clinton said that if Trump is elected and succeeds in repealing Obamacare, Americans would lose a slew of gains they've made under the ACA, including a bar against charging women more for health insurance, prohibiting insurers from discriminating against customers for pre-existing health conditions, and allowing people under age 26 to stay on their parents' health plans. She said getting rid of Obamacare would unshackle insurance companies.
Asked what he would do to replace Obamacare, Trump repeatedly cited his proposal to allow insurers to sell health plans across state lines, which he said would add competition to the marketplace.