IN-05: SPARTZ, HALE DUEL OVER HEALTH CARE IN FIRST DEBATE
INDIANAPOLIS) — The first debate in Indiana’s most hotly contested congressional race brought disagreements in the expected places, with health care and the coronavirus pandemic drawing the most focus and the sharpest differences.
Noblesville State Senator Victoria Spartz and former Indianapolis State Representative Christina Hale both named health care as their top priority if they win the Fifth District seat, but drew battle lines over the federal health care law. Hale criticized Spartz for proudly declaring her opposition to the Affordable Care Act in the Republican primary, and contended her stance would endanger coverage for more than 300,000 district residents with pre-existing conditions.
partz charged the law has funneled billions of dollars to special interests, and argued the states have more flexibility to provide health coverage efficiently. She charged Hale’s position is at odds with her House vote against then-Governor Mike Pence’s expansion of the Healthy Indiana Plan.
Hale and Spartz both emphasized the importance of wearing masks in the pandemic, while shying away from measures to punish people who don’t do so. But they took divergent views of the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Spartz says President Trump did his best with what she calls an unprecedented situation, while saying any crisis offers an opportunity to improve. She argues the government’s emergency response capability has been geared toward short-term crises like 9/11, and lacked strong mechanisms for a public health emergency unlike any in the last 100 years.
Hale says the administration failed the basic task of communicating accurate information early. She says the federal government should have taken charge of distributing its stockpile of ventilators and protective gear. Instead, she says, the handling of the stockpile forced states and hospitals into competition with each other to get their hands on needed gear, and drove up costs in the process. And Hale says it “pains” her to see the wearing of masks become politicized.
https://www.wibc.com/news/local-indiana/spartz-hale-duel-over-health-care-in-first-debate/