In the presidential debate three weeks ago , GOP nominee Donald Trump made a breathtaking claim about his record on health care: He said that he had tried to save the Affordable Care Act when he was president.

During Tuesday nights vice presidential debate, JD Vance repeated that claim and then took it one step further: that Trump had not only tried to save the health care law, but did so with help from Democrats .

Donald Trump could have destroyed the program, Vance said. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.

This is pure fantasy, literally the opposite of the truth.

And it matters, because health care for tens of millions of Americans could depend on the election outcome. Voters have a right to know what Trump would do if he gets back to the White House, which means understanding what he actually did when he was there last.

The Obamacare Debate, As It Was

The real story goes like this:

Trump in his 2016 presidential campaign vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. And it was not some incidental, throwaway line.

He mentioned it constantly, frequently at the beginning of his rallies. His campaign website said: On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.

And Trump followed through on that promise. He spent most of his first year in office working with Republican leaders to pass repeal legislation.

But while Trump had repeatedly said hed offer great health care for much less money and vowed that were going to have insurance for everybody, GOP legislation he backed would have dramatically reduced government spending on health care and weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Many millions were bound to lose coverage , as multiple independent projections showed.