The healthcare topics from the debate

Abortion

Trump argued that "everybody wanted to get [the power to legislate on abortion] back to the states. Everybody without exception, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back … Every legal scholar throughout the world, the most respected, wanted it brought back to the states."

In response, Biden said that Trump had done "a terrible thing" overturning Roe v. Wade and argued against states making their own rules for abortion.

"The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different rule," Biden said.

When asked whether he would "block" access to the abortion pill mifepristone after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a group of anti-abortion doctors challenging FDA's decision on the drug lacked legal standing, Trump said he agreed with the decision and would not block the drug.

Some conservatives, including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, have suggested the 150-year-old Comstock Act — which outlaws the use of mail to send "lewd" materials, as well as drugs used for abortions — would block mail-order prescriptions of the pill.

Trump also claimed that some Democrats are "radical" because "they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth."

However, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, around two-thirds of abortions occur at eight weeks of pregnancy or earlier, and almost 90% occur within the first 12 weeks. Meanwhile, only around 5.5% of abortions take place after 15 weeks, and just 1.3% take place at 21 weeks or later.

Biden emphasized that he supports the protections for abortion laid out in Roe v. Wade and added, "We are not for late-term abortion period — period — under Roe v. Wade."

Medicare and drug prices

During the debate, Trump claimed credit for capping drug costs for seniors, saying, "I'm the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. I took care of the seniors."

Trump implemented a Medicare pilot project that allowed drugmakers and plans to voluntarily offer at least one insulin at $35 per month. However, the policy grew significantly under the Biden administration when Congress codified a $35 per month insulin copay cap as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022.

At one point in the debate, Biden said, "we finally beat Medicare," to which Trump responded, "Well he's right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death and is destroying Medicare, because all of these people are coming in, they're putting them on Medicare. They're putting them on Social Security," referring to undocumented immigrants.

However, the Post notes that undocumented immigrants pay into both Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes but don't receive benefits, which actually improves the health of both programs. The Post determined that undocumented immigrants pay at least $6 billion into Medicare.

COVID-19 response

Trump criticized the Biden administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and took credit for the development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, while also saying that Biden-era vaccine requirements were a "disaster for our country." Trump also claimed that more people died from COVID-19 during the Biden administration than the Trump administration.

Of the 1.2 million Americans who died of COVID-19, around 60% died under the Biden administration, while 40% died under the Trump administration. However, Trump was president during the pandemic for only 10 months compared to more than three years for Biden.

Biden also suggested that Trump said COVID-19 was "not that serious, to inject a little bleach in your arm," referencing a 2020 pandemic briefing where Trump spoke of an "injection inside" of lungs with disinfectant. Trump later claimed he was speaking "sarcastically."

Opioid epidemic

Both Biden and Trump were asked how they would "help Americans in the throes of addiction right now, who are struggling to get the treatment they need."

Initially, Trump ignored the question and instead returned to an unfinished answer regarding China and trade deficits. However, once moderator Jake Tapper asked the question again, Trump blamed rising drug deaths during his tenure on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We were doing very well on addiction until the Covid came along," Trump said. But after the pandemic started, "the drugs pouring across the border, it started to increase."

While drug deaths did increase sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, STAT notes that they were also rising before the pandemic started. According to CDC, overdose deaths increased from around 65,000 per year when Trump took office in 2017 to 74,000 per year in March 2020.

Meanwhile, Biden noted that "Fentanyl and the byproducts of fentanyl went down for a while, and I wanted to make sure we used machinery that can detect fentanyl, these big machines that roll over everything that comes across the border," blaming Trump for blocking a bill that would have funded the acquisition of those machines. "That's what we have to do: We need those machines." (Zhang/Owermohle, STAT, 6/27; Facher, STAT, 6/27; Kessler, Washington Post, 6/28; Bustillo, NPR, 6/28)

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