Trump, Biden clash in final debate on COVID-19 response, health care, race

Welker turned her attention to the lingering stimulus discussions in Congress and asked Trump why he hasn't helped the millions of Americans who haven fallen into poverty, particularly minorities and women.

Trump laid the blame on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"But you're the president," Welker contended.

"Nancy Pelosi does not want to approve it. We are ready, willing and able to do something," Trump said.

Biden, however, noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he can not pass the stimulus bill because he doesn't have the votes.

When asked how he would work differently, the vice president said the Democrats have been pushing to pass the bill for the months.

"Look, they passed this act all the way back in the beginning of the summer. This is like -- it's not new. It's been out there," Biden said.

Biden said if he is elected he would pass Obamacare with a public option, deeming it "Bidencare," and outlining his plan.

"If you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get Medicaid, you're automatically enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies," Biden said. 

"Secondly, we're going to make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that there's competition that doesn't exist now, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the insurance companies," he said. 

Biden said private insurance would be protected under his plan. 

"Thirdly, the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance -- the reason why I had such a fight for -- with 20 candidates for the nomination, was I support private insurance," Biden said. "Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under Obamacare."

"Lastly, we're going to make sure we're in a situation that we actually protect pre-existing conditions. There's no way he can protect pre-existing conditions. None. Zero," Biden said, as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle the entire Affordable Care Act which currently protects them.

Trump said earlier, "I'd like to terminate Obamacare, come up with a brand-new beautiful health care."

With unprecedented unemployment in the United States, where health care is inextricably linked to employment, and a coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe, it's safe to say that on Nov. 3, health is on the ballot.

As it stands, more than 220,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Another roughly 13 million are unemployed.

2:15

Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Health and COVID-19

An overview of the presidential candidates’ positions on various issues.

ABCNews.com

Health might be a political football in 2020, but it's also a deeply personal issue that affects every American voter. Given health's crucial significance this year, the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund polled 4,220 likely voters in battleground states between Aug. 25 and Sept. 20 on which health care issues mattered most to them, and which candidate -- Trump or Biden -- they thought would be more likely to address those health concerns.

Here's what the American public said about which health care issues they care about.

-ABC News' Erin Schumaker

BIDEN'S CLAIM: "The expectation is we'll have another 200,000 Americans dead in the time between now and the end of the year. If we just wore these masks, the president's own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives."

FACT CHECK: The president's advisers haven't used this estimate, though the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has strongly recommended wearing them. A modeling study by the University of Washington estimated at one point that if most Americans wore masks, it could save 100,000 lives by the end of the year. That estimate has been repeated by Tom Frieden, who led the CDC under President Barack Obama.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the current head of the CDC under Trump, has not made such a statement.

According to his office, he has said that the pandemic could begin to come under control in eight to 12 weeks "if all people living in America wore a face mask, were smart about social distancing and crowds, and practiced good hand hygiene."

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty