Ted Cruz And Bernie Sanders Debate Health Care On CNN: What You Missed

Miss the presidential race? Ever wish you could turn back time and run it again to get a different match-up, say with Sen. Ted Cruz against Sen. Bernie Sanders?

Any lingering supporters of Cruz or Sanders had that wish partially fulfilled Tuesday night. The two former presidential candidates went head-to-head in a town hall debate over health care on CNN.

With Obamacare repeal a main agenda item in Washington, D.C., the debate may be more pertinent than ever.

Cruz, a Republican from Texas, emphasized the downsides of the law, while Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who calls himself a democratic socialist, stressed the benefits — but focused more on the benefits of single-payer systems.

"The ACA has been a step forward, I say we should go further," Sanders said in his opening statement. As he would many times during the night, Sanders advocated for a single-payer health care system.

Cruz's opening salvo took aim at President Obama's promises that if you liked your doctor and your health care plan, you could keep them under the ACA — which proved not to be true for many people. He argued that whenever government gets involved in something, it screws it up.

Later, to little laughter from the audience, Cruz compared Sanders' demands for "more government" to an old Saturday Night Live Sketch in which a Christopher Walken's character repeatedly asked for "more cowbell."

In many ways, the discussion over the ACA transformed into a debate over the conflicting ideologies of the two former candidates. Cruz warned of the horrors of socialism and rationing, while Sanders bemoaned amoral businesses and government neglect.

Asked whether Republican plans for health care would protect people with pre-existing conditions, Cruz said that under any law conservatives have proposed, insurers could not kick people off their plans for having a pre-existing condition. But as Sanders pointed out, this would not guarantee coverage for people who developed health issues when they didn't have insurance.

When Sanders was asked about plans with sky-high deductibles and burdensome premiums, he declined to defend the ACA, as he often did. Instead, he again argued that single-payer health care would solve the cost issues.

One notable moment came when a small business owner from Fort Worth, Texas, argued that she couldn't expand her business, because Obamacare requires businesses with more than 50 employees to provide health care coverage. Sanders initially offered her little sympathy, saying that she should be responsible for providing that insurance under the status quo.

When later faced with the fact that the business owner herself didn't have health insurance, Sanders returned to his refrain that single-payer insurance would solve her problems.

When Cruz argued that the ACA led to huge profits for the insurance industry, the pair found an area of common agreement.

Sanders invited Cruz to join him in supporting a single-payer system instead, to laughter from the audience, to take health insurance out of the private sector entirely.

"Ted, let's work together," Sanders said. "We'll move to a Medicare-for-all system."

The pair disagreed over whether or not Americans have a "right" to health care. While Sanders said people do have this right, Cruz took a more moderate view, saying that people only have a right to "access" health care — which Sanders said "didn't mean a damn thing."

Another woman with multiple sclerosis on Medicaid, who received the coverage after the ACA was passed, asked Cruz, "I like my insurance. Can I keep it?" Cruz did not directly answer the question, but instead said that Medicaid was failing its members.

There were are a few points where Sanders and Cruz did seem to find true agreement:

• Americans should be able to buy drugs from foreign countries.
• The Food and Drug Administration should permit the sale of drugs approved in other countries with high standards.
• The government should be able to negotiate with drug companies on prices (though Cruz was not entirely definitive on this point).

The broader public may be in need of a refresher on the details of the law. According to the New York Times, around 35 percent of people polled did not know Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the same thing.

If that describes you, or if you're a bit fuzzy on the details, you can read CNN's debate night reference guide. For a few more obscure facts about the law, check out Patch's 7 Things You Didn't Know Obamacare Has Done.

Photo credit: Phil Roeder/Jamelle Bouie