Vice President Walz’s health policy is consistent with Harris’ record

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has nominated Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate. On health care, Walz’s policy views align with Harris’s. From abortion rights to reasonably priced health care to medical debt, he has tried to perform on the state level what Harris wants to perform on the federal level.

Walz is in his second term as Governor of Minnesota. From 2007 to 2019, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Minnesota’s 1st congressional district.

Ten months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, signed a bill that protects people looking for or having abortions in Minnesota. Vice President Harris has also been an outspoken supporter of abortion rights. She has called on Congress to revive the protections provided by Roe v. Wade.

Walz views health care as a “basic human right” and often touts his state’s record on patient access to reasonably priced health care. The governor’s office announced last week that WalletHub for the second 12 months in a row Rank Minnesota #1 in healthcare. To calculate the rankings, WalletHub uses a composite measure of 44 indicators across affordability, access and health outcomes.

The governor highlighted the passage of a law in 2020 that Insulin cheaper for Minnesotans by imposing a $35 monthly cap on the out-of-pocket costs for eligible individuals. Similarly, under the Biden-Harris administration, the out-of-pocket costs for insulin limited to $35 monthly for Medicare beneficiaries as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which can be passed in 2022. Harris intends to push to increase this provision to the business insurance sector if she is elected president.

In addition, Walz supported other drug pricing provisions of the IRA, including price negotiations for Medicare drugs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chosen the primary 10 best-selling prescribed drugs for negotiation last August. The agency will publicly announce maximum fair prices for those drugs by Sept. 1, 2024. It will select 15 more drugs for negotiation in February 2025. In addition, starting next 12 months, Medicare beneficiaries will face a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket costs for outpatient prescribed drugs. Harris said she intends to increase the Medicare drug cost-cutting measures enacted through the IRA to the private sector, where nearly all of working Americans buy their insurance. While Walz has not explicitly said he supports such an expansion, it seems consistent together with his policies as governor.

To reduce disparities in access to medical insurance, Walz has worked to make it easier for eligible state residents to get insurance. In January of this 12 months, Walz’s office stated: a record variety of Minnesotansover 146,000 had signed up for personal medical insurance through MNsure, the state’s official medical insurance marketplace. The uninsured rate within the state currently stands at 3.8%, well below the national average of seven.7%.

And as a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Walz defended policies advanced by the ACA, equivalent to expanding Medicaid and protecting individuals with pre-existing conditions by allowing them to buy insurance at community-set premiums (the identical price for everybody with no medical underwriting) and without lifetime limits.

Walz has long favored This allows all residents to purchase into the state-run medical insurance program, MinnesotaCare, although this “public option” proposal has not yet been implemented. The concept of a public option maintains a job for personal insurers and allows a alternative between plans offered by private insurers or a state-run or regulated medical insurance plan. As a presidential candidate in 2019 and 2020, Harris supported a public option as a part of her health care reform proposal.

Walz has signed other measures which are consistent with Harris’s policy goals, including laws that alleviates the burden of medical debt for Minnesota residents. Specifically, it prohibits medical providers from withholding medically crucial treatment because of unpaid debt and prevents medical debt from affecting credit scores.

Harris supports efforts to make use of funds from the American Rescue Plan to purchase up medical debt from health care providers – an initiative that might end in $7 billion in debt forgiveness for 3 million Americans by 2026. Harris also wants forbid Medical bills should not included on individuals’ credit reports. Medical debt relief is obtainable during Election rallies and might be presented more prominently as “bread and butter” political matter in the approaching weeks and months, Related Press reports.

In addition, Walz is pursuing Improving transparency in prescription drug costs. In June of this 12 months, the governor’s office released an initial list of 364 drugs from 76 pharmaceutical manufacturers that can now be subject to detailed reporting, not only by the drug manufacturers, but in addition by pharmacy profit managers, wholesalers and pharmacies. The state government expects the knowledge collected will make clear how prices are increasing through markups as they move through the availability chain.

Harris and Walz once disagreed significantly on gun control, which might be considered a public health issue. In the mid-2010s, Walz received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. But lately he has modified his stance and now embraces Support for a ban on assault weapons, in response to the Christian Science MonitorSuch a ban is a central point in Harris’ election campaign.

In summary, Harris and Walz appear to largely agree on a big selection of health care policy, and given the recognition of the policies they support amongst many citizens, they’re prone to play a serious role in campaign rallies.