overview: Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has made health care a key issue in the November presidential election. Walz has a history of supporting left-leaning health care policies, including legislation to give the federal government power to negotiate drug prices in Medicare and to codify abortion rights in the states. Republicans have criticized Walz’s positions, but Democrats see his efforts to lower drug prices and protect abortion rights as mainstream positions that will appeal to swing voters. The election also highlights the importance of the national fight over abortion rights and voters’ deep anxieties about rising health care costs.
Stephanie Armour | Kaiser Health News
Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has made health care a top issue in the final stretch before the November presidential election.
Walz, 60, a former high school teacher and football coach, has a track record of championing left-leaning health care policies during his two terms as governor and during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. Walz also leads a state that is the epicenter of the health care industry: Minnesota is home to the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, and one of its most prestigious hospital systems, the Mayo Clinic.
Republicans have used Waltz’s record to paint Harris-Waltz’s health care agenda as radical, while Democrats say his work on lowering drug costs and protecting abortion rights is mainstream and will appeal to swing voters. Either way, Waltz’s selection has pushed health care policy to the center of the election, highlighting the importance of the national fight over abortion rights and voters’ deep concerns about rising health care costs.
Many of Waltz’s positions are consistent with Harris’.
He has fought for abortion access, signing a bill codifying abortion rights in the state and touring a Planned Parenthood clinic with the vice president in March.
He has supported a bill in Congress that would give the federal government more power to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities. The Biden administration announced the new bill on August 15. Prices of 10 types of medicines reduced The program will implement cost savings resulting from negotiations between the government and pharmaceutical companies, which are due to take effect from 2026.
As Governor, Waltz Signed into law in 2020 It capped insulin copays for eligible residents who need them urgently to $35 a month. Two years later, President Joe Biden did the same for all Medicare patients.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Walz mandated mask-wearing in most indoor public spaces. In 2020, he extended the stay-at-home order and former President Donald Trump called for “a swift response to the pandemic.”Liberate Minnesota!” on the social platform X, which was then called Twitter.
“When it comes to issues and policy, he has common sense,” said Andy Slavitt, a former UnitedHealth executive and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “He’s not an ideologue. He’s an independent thinker who cares about people who don’t have the resources,” said Slavitt, who served as a senior adviser to the Biden administration’s coronavirus task force.
Waltz also supports fertility treatments, sharing his personal experience of turning to fertility treatments to conceive when he and his wife, Gwen, tried them. His firsthand knowledge of the challenges of fertility treatments has become politically powerful, as IVF, despite its widespread availability, is increasingly under threat from some anti-abortion advocates.
“Walz has spoken clearly and passionately about his experience with IVF, and that’s resonated with people on both sides of the aisle,” said Christopher Shearon, founder and president of Action for Health, a national nonprofit advocacy group.
Minnesota Republicans say Walz’s health care policies would hurt his Democratic opponent. They criticize him for requiring state employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine or get regular testing in 2021, supporting legislation to enshrine abortion rights, supporting the legalization of recreational marijuana and signing a bill to expand public health insurance to some immigrants without legal residency.
“Under Governor Walz, we have seen some of the most extreme, far-left policies in the nation. At a time when Americans crave unity, Walz has a record of implementing extreme policies that only serve to further divide us,” Minnesota Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson said in a statement. “He has led the state toward government-run health care and pushed restrictive health care mandates that have limited Minnesotans’ access to life-saving health care.”
Tracy Mitchell, a Minnesota resident, said before Walz was elected, she planned to support former President Donald Trump in November because she believed he would do more to reduce health care costs.
The announcement solidified her decision to vote for Trump.
“I have three children and health care is expensive,” said Mitchell, 38, of Ham Lake, who was visiting Stillwater, Minnesota, with her family. She is the program operations director for a mental health care clinic.
“I think the way he’s handled COVID and the medical side of things, he’s gone too extreme,” she said.
Still, Democrats hope that a stronger focus on health care can help them capitalize on voter concerns about fiscal problems in battleground states and give them an electoral advantage.
Forty-eight percent of Republican or Republican-leaning adults said health care affordability is a very big problem in the country, according to a poll conducted in May. Pew Research Center65% of Democrats or Democratic-leaning adults agreed.
This concern is bigger than illegal immigration, the federal budget deficit, gun violence, or drug addiction.
Three in four adults say they are very or somewhat worried about being able to pay unexpected medical bills. Based on opinion polls It was conducted in January and February by KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
“Republicans have always struggled because they talk about health care in economic terms,” said William Pierce, a senior director at global consulting and advocacy firm APCO Worldwide and a former Republican congressional aide. “Democrats talk about it as a personal issue. The election of Walz gives them a huge opportunity to push that even harder.”
Walz’s Republican opponent, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has little experience on health care issues, but he has sought to voice concerns about rising health care costs and barriers to access.
During a recent visit to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance said the government must do more to maintain access to health care in rural America.
in Editorial, July 2017 Long before he became a Republican candidate for the Senate, Vance spoke in a New York Times op-ed in which he voiced his support for certain provisions of Obamacare and criticized Republican efforts to repeal the law, which he said would “roll back help for the poor.”
Since joining the Trump campaign, Vance agreed. President Trump tried to repeal the ACA (Affordable Care Act) while he was president but failed.
“The divide is between those who defend the ACA and those who want to repeal it, and Walz’s choice makes that contrast clearer than ever,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a nonpartisan organization focused on health care access and affordability.
Vance He supported allowing the federal government to negotiate. Medicare drug prices — a rare point of agreement with Democrats on health policy.
Like Trump, he opposes gender-affirming care for transgender minors, but he has taken a firmer stance on abortion than his predecessor, a position Democrats have sought to exploit, and public support has grown since the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights. Roe v. Wade In 2022, many Republican-led states have moved to impose stricter bans.
Both Democrats and Republicans have faced renewed scrutiny over their positions on health care. California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis’ super PAC, Californians for Choice, ran an ad this month alleging that Vance supports a nationwide abortion ban that would “take away our freedoms.”
Vance, like Trump, has recently said he believes states should decide specific abortion policies. He previously supported Making abortion illegal nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has dubbed Waltz “Tampon Tim.” State laws he signed The plan drawn up by the school district requires that “menstrual products be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 through 12.”
A recent Trump campaign ad called Waltz “too weird. Too extreme.”
But Mr. Walz’s inclusion on the list of candidates has energized Democrats who care about health care issues, such as Angel Palm, 32, a disability life coach who lives in Fridley, Minnesota.
“My son has autism and we have medical expenses, so this is very important,” she told KFF Health News. “I’m very excited.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the flagship operating programs of KFF, an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism. KFF.
