The Next Governor's Health Care

Two candidates for New Hampshire governor fought in the shadow of "Obamacare" as they debated health care Monday.

Republican Ovide Lamontagne accused Democrat Maggie Hassan of trying to push through a type of government-run health care when she was in the state Senate. Lamontagne pledges to block the Affordable Care Act if elected.

"The Affordable Care Act takes $716 billion over 10 years, and a lot of it from New Hampshire senior citizens, to fund this Affordable Care Act," he said. "I say we can do it more efficiently, working in conjunction with the federal government, and we will."

Hassan replied, "What Ovide just said was outrageous. The Affordable Care Act is trying to change the reimbursement system in our health care so that we can achieve better outcomes for our seniors, for people with disabilities, and savings that can then be used to expand care so that we all participate in the health care system ..."

She hurled a few charges of her own in the hour-long debate on New Hampshire Public Radio: that her opponent supports "the Paul Ryan plan to voucherize Medicare," and that he would defund Planned Parenthood and limit women's health care options.

Their back-and-forth on health care access and costs had echoes of the debate between the Obama-Biden ticket and the Romney-Ryan ticket. But will it be the No. 1 issue for voters when they pick up their ballots on Nov. 6?

– Dan Tuohy