On the eve of the first presidential debate, some of the nations foremost experts on the contested subject of health care policy converged to discuss the nuances and complications of U.S. health care reform.

During Tuesday's event, panelists discussed the trials and tribulations of health care policy in the United States and analyzed the role it has played in the upcoming election. The discussion was the second of two forums hosted by the Ross Office of Tax Policy Research at the Ross School of Business, that are designed to raise awareness of prominent campaign issues.

David Leonhardt, the Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, said during the event that health care reform has been a critical and divisive topic of presidential debate for decades.

(Health care) is a hugely complicated problem, and thats why you see it in the subject of some of the most difficult, toughest political fights we have had in this country really for 80 years, Leonhardt said.

He noted that all former presidents who have tried to reform U.S. health care policy were unsuccessful.

FDR failed to get universal health care, Harry Truman failed, JFK failed, LBJ failed, Richard Nixon failed and Bill Clinton failed, Leonhardt said. Nearly everyone who has tried failed.

Leonhardt noted that the election is becoming increasingly polarized between voters who support the Affordable Care Act and those who believe it should be repealed, even though its legality was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

Jonathan Gruber, a professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the country has two primary choices for the future of health care.

The fight in this country is stuck between two extremes: on the one hand we have the left, which says we should have a single health system like Canada on the right they say the system works fine, Gruber said.

Gruber said of the options, neither is possible or sustainable, and the government must build on the existing system in formulating effective reform policies.

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Experts discuss impact of health care on campaigns