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Former Vice President Joe Biden cast aside attacks from President Donald Trump over what health care could look like under a Democratic president, saying his plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, should it be dismantled, would be dubbed "Bidencare." (Hayes, 10/22)

Biden took the opportunity to plug his own health care plan, which he called “Bidencare” multiple times on stage, a sign that he is growing more confident in the popularity of the proposal. The former Vice President would boost the ACA’s subsidies to help more people buy health coverage and would create a government-run public option. The idea of a public option for health insurance has gotten significantly more popular in recent months. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 67% of likely voters support a public option, even more than the 55% who support Obamacare. (Abrams, 10/22)

Trump, who took the first question on how his administration is going to deal with the latest surge in [COVID] cases, said the mortality rate has decreased and that the surges will go away. “We’re fighting it, and we’re fighting it hard,” Trump said. “There’s some spikes and surges in other places, and they will soon be gone.” Biden responded by criticizing the president for not doing more to prevent the deaths of 220,000 Americans from the virus so far. “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said. (Morin and Santucci, 10/22)

Trump, as he has throughout the pandemic, largely glossed over the country’s death toll and painted an optimistic picture about the availability of Covid-19 vaccines. ... Biden attempted to throw cold water on Trump’s boasts, warning Americans they likely wouldn’t have access to a Covid-19 for several months, if not longer. “We’re about to go into a dark winter,” Biden said. “He has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that a vaccine is going to be available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.” (Facher, 10/22)

President Trump’s attempt to paint Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s health care plan as a government takeover of the medical industry was met with stiff resistance in the second and final presidential debate Thursday night. In Nashville, Tenn., Trump said that Biden’s plan, which would provide a “public option” that gives Americans the ability to buy into a government plan, would eliminate private insurance. But the former vice president, who frequently sparred with his more left-wing Democratic primary rivals over the issue, insisted that he would leave private insurance alone. Biden shot down what he called “the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance.” He argued that his differing view on this issue was the “reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination.” (Wilson, 10/22)

KHN and PolitiFact: In Tamer Debate, Trump And Biden Clash (Again) On President’s Pandemic Response

In the second and final debate of the 2020 presidential race, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred over Trump’s handling of the pandemic and Biden’s plan to reform health care. In stark contrast to the first debate, there was more policy talk. There was also less interrupting. Trump said a COVID-19 vaccine is “ready” and will be announced “within weeks,” shortly before conceding that it is “not a guarantee.” (10/23)

Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy expert who was an architect of the original ACA in the Obama administration, is skeptical that any major Republican changes to his legislation are truly in the works. "They've had 10, almost 11 years now, after passage of the Affordable Care Act to put in place an alternative, and they haven't done it," Emanuel told Insider. "They don't have a plan." Perhaps that's because Republicans don't really want to get rid of the whole ACA.  (Brueck and Leonard, 10/22)

Health care was going to be the defining issue of the 2020 election before a pandemic and economic upheaval eclipsed pretty much everything else. But of course, the pandemic has highlighted many health policy issues. With a highly contagious virus spreading around the world, "you might be thinking more about the importance of health insurance, or you may be worried about losing your job, which is where you get your health insurance," says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. "The COVID pandemic and health policy are intertwined." (Simmons-Duffin, 10/22)

KHN and Politifact: Did Trump Confuse The Public Option With ‘Medicare For All’? 

During the final presidential debate, President Donald Trump claimed that 180 million people would lose their private health insurance to socialized medicine if the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, is elected president. “They have 180 million people, families under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine — you won’t even have a choice — they want to terminate 180 million plans,” said Trump. (Knight, 10/23)