Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton never mentioned health care Sept. 27, during the first presidential debate of 2016.
Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, talked a little Tuesday, during the vice presidential debate, about his support for repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Clinton’s pick for vice president, Tim Kaine, referred, briefly, to health coverage for children and military personnel during the debate. Kaine said nothing about health care or health insurance for working-age civilians.
Related: Pence attacks ACA in vice presidential debate with Kaine
Former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband, brought the topic of health finance out of the shadows Monday, by saying during a campaign speech in Flint, Michigan, that the current Affordable Care Act system is too hard on people who earn more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Trump and Trump’s supporters seized on the fact the Bill Clinton described the plight of moderately broke consumers in the individual health insurance market as “the craziest thing in the world.”
Related: Next president should eat with Congress, insider says
For agents and brokers, the takeaway may be that pressure on the Democratic side for expanding government health coverage programs for working-age adults is still powerful, and unpredictable.
For more about what the candidates have been saying this week, read on:
What Bill Clinton really said Monday
Clinton did not say Monday that he opposes the Affordable Care Act or wants it repealed.
He said the current system works well for people eligible for Medicare, Medicaid and ACA public health insurance exchange subsidies, according to a video of the speech posted on YouTube by Fox 10 Phoenix.
But individuals who earn more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or too much to qualify for the exchange subsidies, “are getting killed in this deal,” Clinton said. “They’re not organized. They don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies.”
Those people’s premiums have doubled and their coverage has been cut in half, Clinton said.