Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who was chosen Tuesday to be Vice President Harris’s working mate, brings a progressive strategy to well being care, with a concentrate on lowering prices.
Walz has mentioned his well being coverage priorities have been formed partly by his private expertise. His father died of most cancers when Walz was 19, leaving his mom drowning in medical debt.
In June, Walz signed a regulation banning medical suppliers from withholding medically mandatory care resulting from unpaid debt.
With a Democratic state Legislature, Walz has launched a prescription drug affordability board that may set limits on what insurers pay. He signed a invoice to assist individuals afford insulin in emergency conditions, and the state this 12 months reached a settlement with Eli Lilly to cap all insulin costs at $35 for the following 5 years.
Throughout his tenure as governor, Minnesota has additionally carried out a drug worth transparency initiative.
In his first inaugural deal with in 2019, Walz mentioned he needed to reaffirm well being care within the state as a human proper.
“What Minnesotans need from their well being care is straightforward. They don’t need to get sick within the first place. But when they do, they need care at a worth they will afford and at a location near house,” Walz mentioned.
“As Minnesotans, we are able to determine tips on how to ship well being care extra successfully, extra affordably and with higher outcomes. We will, and should, be sure that each Minnesotan has entry to high quality care at a worth they will afford.”
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Walz has additionally championed the Minnesota Well being Care Entry Fund, which helps fund well being care protection for low-income state residents.
The previous highschool trainer has demonstrated a realistic strategy to well being care coverage, significantly in terms of incentivizing medical companies to proceed working in his state.
Walz supported watering down a hospital worth transparency invoice after the Mayo Clinic — the state’s largest employer — threatened to drag billions of {dollars} in new investments. The risk additionally led Walz and the Democratic Legislature to again down from a invoice that will have mandated hospitals and clinics create “core staffing plans” to ascertain the utmost variety of sufferers every nurse may take care of.
On abortion, Walz aimed to make Minnesota a secure haven for entry within the wake of the top of Roe v. Wade.
He signed a invoice making the precise to an abortion a state regulation. Abortion in Minnesota is authorized till fetal viability, usually round 23 to 25 weeks. Harris in March visited a Minnesota Deliberate Parenthood clinic that gives abortions, changing into the primary U.S. vp to go to an abortion clinic.
Walz additionally eradicated a compulsory 24-hour ready interval and parental consent requirement and signed an abortion “defend regulation” to guard well being suppliers and sufferers from abortion-related prosecution in different states.
Final 12 months, Walz signed laws legalizing adult-use marijuana in his state. Together with ushering in a brand new legalized hashish trade into Minnesota, the invoice additionally allowed for some low-level marijuana offenses to be expunged from felony data.
Throughout his time in Congress, Walz confirmed his willingness to cross get together leaders.
Walz voted for the Reasonably priced Care Act in 2010 and by no means supported any of the GOP replacements. The 2010 vote was among the many elements that put him in Republican crosshairs, however he nonetheless managed to win reelection.
However in 2015, he voted in favor of a invoice repealing the regulation’s excise tax on medical gadgets, placing him at odds with then-President Obama, who had vowed to veto earlier iterations of the invoice.
The regulation was placed on short-term hiatus in 2016 and repealed below former President Trump in 2019.
