Crowd gets involved in 7th District debate

in managing the opioid epidemic, funding for education, maintaining economic growth and managing the federal government’s budget deficit.

Asked about health care benefits, the incumbent, Gibbs said health insurance for Americans is a “key concern” in his campaign. He said he did not support the Affordable Care Act and voted to change the law, and “we need to get competition back into the marketplace.”

Gibbs said the House passed a bill in 2017, the American Health Care Act, that would have allowed people with pre-existing conditions to purchase insurance but accused the Senate of dropping the bill.

“We are protecting pre-existing conditions and the president is talking about that,” he said of President Donald Trump.

Harbaugh, the challenger, criticized Gibbs for voting to change the Affordable Care Act and said the issue of treatment of covering people with pre-existing conditions was “deeply personal” for him, citing experiences with his own daughter, who needed four surgeries before she was 4.

He added that the U.S. government needs to “find ways to bring down premiums” and wanted to expand early Medicare for those who may need it.

About the opioid crisis and the federal government, Gibbs said the country may be seeing the issue begin to level off. He added that Congress has put $11 billion for state and local governments to use across the country. He also said awareness and education efforts have increased throughout the country.

“We are educated on what the problem is,” Gibbs said.

Harbaugh said $11 billion was a “drop in the bucket when you keep in mind that we lost more (people) last year alone than in the Vietnam War” to opioid overdoses nationwide.

The 7th District includes all of Ashland, Coshocton, Holmes and Knox counties and parts of Huron, Lorain, Medina, Richland, Stark and Tuscarawas counties.