Donald Trump on Tuesday night said the top three priorities of the federal government are national security, healthcare, and education.

“Security, security, security,” Trump originally responded to an attendee’s question during the Town Hall Presidential debate in Milwaukee, Wis. “I’d also add healthcare, education, housing.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked why education and healthcare top that list when Trump has said he would slash funding for the Department of Education, and he stands opposed to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

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[Also: Mitt Romney: Any Republican candidate would reform healthcare with tax credits]

“Obamacare is a disaster,” Trump said. “The government can lead but it should be privately done. It has to be private.”

Trump listed rising costs and premiums as problems to address.

“We don’t have bidding,” Trump added. “We don’t have competition.”

Texas Senator Ted Cruz touched on healthcare when an attendee asked whether he would support legislation about opioid prescriptions. Cruz pointed to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We’re seeing vets come back suffering from PTSD,” Cruz said. “We have to have accountability at the VA.”

Cruz added that any VA officials who either denied veterans care or lied about it should be fired and prosecuted where appropriate and that he would work to enable veterans to choose their own doctors.

An attendee asked Ohio Gov. John Kasich, last to take the stage, why he accepted government funding for Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchanges when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker provided the same services via Badgercare without taking money from Washington. Kasich fired back and corrected that he opted against setting up a health insurance exchange under the ACA.

“It’s not so simple what Governor Walker did here,” Kasich said. “I had a choice: Could I bring money back to our state?”

[Also: Ted Cruz: 'We'll repeal every single word of Obamacare' if elected]

When Kasich decided to expand Medicaid under the ACA, the program was growing by 10 percent and using government funding shrunk spending down to about 2 percent in his second year in office, Kasich said. It also led to better treatment for Medicaid patients, notably the mentally ill and substance-addicted poor and ultimately saved money such that Ohio has a $2 billion surplus.

“I reject Obamacare,” Kasich said. “And I have a plan to replace Obamacare based on transparency.”

None of the candidates offered much detail beyond that about their specific plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they all agreed on one thing: None would publicly commit to supporting either of the others as a Republican nominee any longer.

Twitter: @SullyHIT

Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com

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