- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden described President Donald Trump as “a very confused guy” when the president falsely claimed Biden supports “socialized medicine” during Thursday’s debate.
- “He thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them,” said the former vice president.
- Trump repeated the false claim that 180 million Americans stand to lose their private health insurance under Biden’s plan.
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called President Donald Trump “a very confused guy” when the president falsely claimed Biden supports “socialized medicine” during Thursday night’s presidential debate.
In a discussion about healthcare, Trump said Biden’s plan to expand the Affordable Care Act by adding a public option would “destroy” Medicare and Social Security, and amount to socialism. The former vice president, who doesn’t support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, went on the attack in response.
“He’s a very confused guy,” Biden said. “He thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them.”
The president also falsely claimed that 180 million Americans would lose their private health insurance under Biden’s plan. While Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal would eliminate private insurance, Biden’s plan wouldn’t.
Biden’s plan, which he called “Bidencare,” would allow Americans under 65 to receive Medicare — a public option on the healthcare exchanges. His plan would also seek to make healthcare plans on the exchanges more affordable by lowering the limit on how much plans can cost and get rid of the cap on insurance subsidies.
Trump didn't deliver any new details about his long-promised healthcare proposal.
The president's domestic policy chief recently told Business Insider that an Obamacare replacement is still "being worked on."
—Axios (@axios) October 23, 2020