The three remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination met in Wisconsin Tuesday evening for a town hall ahead of the primary April 5.
Here are the healthcare highlights.
1. Frontrunner Donald Trump called healthcare one of the top three functions of the U.S. government. To be accurate, he first called the top three functions, security, security and security. However, he added, "I say all top three are security, but healthcare, education, would be probably three that would be top." When host Anderson Cooper asked for clarification on if healthcare should be run by the federal government, Mr. Trump replied, "The government can lead it, but it should be privately done."
2. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called for accountability in the VA and greater scrutiny and involvement in preventing opioid abuse. Sen. Cruz was asked if he supported stronger opiate prescribing guidelines within the VA and across the country by the father of a former Marine who died due to overprescribing while he was a VA patient. On the VA, Sen. Cruz said, "Those that have lied, those that have wrongfully denied care, they will be terminated. And if they broke the law, they will be prosecuted." He added, "We also need reform in the VA so that veterans have the power to choose their own doctors."
To address the question of drug abuse, Sen. Cruz shared the story of his sister, Miriam, who died of a drug overdose after becoming addicted to painkillers she was initially prescribed to treat injuries from a car accident. "We need a federal government that focuses on stopping this drug abuse, whether it is prescription drug abuse or whether it is illegal narcotics like heroin," Sen. Cruz said. "One of the ways to prevent that is we need to secure the border," he added.
3. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) defended his choice to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. An attendee challenged his choice to use federal funds for Medicaid expansion, as opposed to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's BadgerCare program, which the attendee said, "essentially provide[s] the same services at the same levels, and yet we did it without creating a whole new entitlement program and expanding federal debt."
Gov. Kasich defended this choice by saying he reduced Medicare spending growth from 10.5 percent to 2.5 percent "without taking one person off the rolls or cutting one benefit," by introducing innovation into the system. He said his choice is helping the mentally ill and those in prison get treatment, and that the state is running a $2 billion surplus.
"The idea of doing that was not only compassionate, but it also made good economic sense for our state and it's working out quite well," Gov. Kasich said.
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