Healthcare fades into the background of 2016 election cycle

With Obamacare battles largely behind us, presidential candidates in 2016 seem focused on other issues.

Healthcare played starring roles in the 2008 and 2012 election cycles. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act became the battle cry of politicians hoping to ascend to the highest office in the land. But Obamacare passed through the gauntlets of the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court, and came out in tact.

Whether it’s fatigue with the topic of healthcare, a shift in the public’s priorities, or other campaign year distractions, how we pay for our doctor’s visits has fallen from the top of the nation’s priorities list.

Regardless, though, we wanted to check in on what politicians are saying about healthcare with Kaiser Health News correspondent Julie Rovner, who acknowledges that candidates this year aren’t really healthcare-focused, but she reminds us that it’s still an important topic.

“Healthcare is always going to be an issue in a presidential campaign if the economy is, because it’s kind of a proxy for people’s economic anxiety,” says Rovner.

Rovner spoke with The Pulse host Maiken Scott about the healthcare policy differences between the candidates.