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Harris-Walz Ticket Strengthens Trump-Vance Difference on Health Care – KFF Health News

STILLWATER, Minn. – Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate makes health care the last major issue heading into November’s presidential election.

Walz, a 60-year-old high school teacher and football coach, has a record of supporting left-leaning health care initiatives during his two terms as governor and while serving in the US House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. He also leads. The state is at the heart of the health care industry: Minnesota is home to the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, and one of its most famous hospital systems, the Mayo Clinic.

Republicans have used his record to launch the Harris-Walz ticket that has gone too far on health care, while Democrats say Walz’s efforts to lower drug costs and preserve access to abortion are core issues that attract voters. swing. Either way, her election underscores the status of health care as an election issue, highlighting the height of the nation’s battle over abortion access as well as deep voter anger over the cost of abortion. increasing health care.

Many of Walz’s positions are related to Harris’s.

He has fought for access to abortion, signed legislation to coordinate abortion rights in the state, and in March visited a Planned Parenthood clinic with the vice president.

He sponsored congressional legislation empowering the federal government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. The Biden administration on Aug. 15 released new, reduced prices for 10 drugs in a program emerging from negotiations between the government and drug manufacturers. Lower costs will begin in 2026.

As governor, Walz signed legislation in 2020 to reduce the cost of insulin from $35 a month for eligible residents who need the medicine urgently. Two years later, President Joe Biden did the same for all Medicare patients.

At the beginning of the covid-19 epidemic, Walz ordered that masks be worn in many indoor public places. He extended the stay-at-home order in 2020, prompting former President Donald Trump to declare “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” on X, a social platform that used to be called Twitter.

“He’s a thinker when it comes to issues and policy,” said Andy Slavitt, a former UnitedHealth executive and former director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “He is not a thinker. He’s an independent professional who cares about people who don’t have resources,” said Slavitt, who was a senior adviser to the Biden administration’s response team.

Walz also advocated for fertility treatments, sharing his story of how he and his wife, Gwen, relied on them to get pregnant. Because in vitro fertilization is increasingly threatened by some opponents of abortion, despite its widespread popularity, his first-hand knowledge of fertility problems adds political muscle.

“Walz has been articulate and passionate about her experience with IVF, and it’s connecting with people on both sides of the aisle,” said Christoper Sheeron, founder and president of Action for Health, a nonprofit non-profit state.

The Minnesota Republican says Walz’s health status will work against the Democratic ticket. They criticize his 2021 covid vaccination or regular testing requirement for government employees, his support of abortion rights legislation, his support of recreational marijuana legislation, and the bill that he signed on to extend health coverage to some undocumented immigrants.

“Under Governor Walz, we have seen one of the most aggressive, far-reaching policies in the country. While Americans are looking for unity, Walz has a record of implementing radical policies. dividing us even more,” Minnesota’s Senate Republican leader, Mark Johnson, said in a statement. “He set our state on a path toward government-run health care and championed restrictive health care mandates that prevent Minnesotans from accessing life-saving care.”

Minnesotan Tracy Mitchell said that before Walz’s election, she was willing to support former President Donald Trump in November because she believed he would do more to reduce health care costs.

The announcement confirmed his decision: He’s voting for Trump.

“I have three kids, and health care is expensive,” said Mitchell, 38, of Ham Lake, while visiting Stillwater, Minnesota, with her family. I am the program operations manager for a mental health clinic.

He said: “The way he has handled covid, and in terms of health care, I think he has gone too far.

However, Democrats are hoping that a greater focus on health care will give them an advantage in the election, contributing to the election on pocketbook issues in swing states.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning adults said affording health care is the biggest problem in the country, according to a May poll by the Pew Research Center . Sixty-five percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning adults agreed.

Concerns over illegal immigration, the lack of government funding, gun violence and drug addiction.

Three out of four adults say they are very worried or somewhat worried about being able to pay unexpected medical bills, according to a survey conducted in January and February by KFF, a non-profit organization health news including KFF Health News.

“Republicans have been hurting because they talk about health care in terms of the economy,” said William Pierce, a senior director at APCO Worldwide, a global consulting and advocacy firm, and a former assistant to GOP. “Democrats are talking about it as a personal issue. Walz’s election gives them a great opportunity to push it even further.”

Walz’s partner on the GOP ticket, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has little experience with health care issues. But he sought to express concern about rising costs and barriers to care.

During a recent visit to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance said the government must do more to preserve access to health care in rural America.

In a July 2017 op-ed published by The New York Times, before running for the Senate as a Republican, Vance expressed support for some provisions of the Affordable Care Act and criticized the GOP’s push to repeal the law because, he said, the proposal “withdraws its support for the poor.”

Since joining the Trump ticket, Vance has aligned himself with Trump’s views on the ACA — a law that Trump tried to repeal while he was president.

“The difference between those who defend the ACA and those who would repeal it; Walz’s election makes that difference clearer than ever before,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a nonpartisan organization focused on health care access and affordability.

Vance has supported allowing the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices — a rare point of agreement on health policy with Democrats.

Like Trump, he opposes equal care for transgender children. But he has taken a firmer stance than the former president on abortion — which vulnerable Democrats have sought to exploit. Public support for abortion rights has increased since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and many Republican-led states moved to impose stricter restrictions.

Both the Democratic and Republican campaigns are reevaluating their positions on health care. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’ super PAC, Californians for Choice, released an ad this month saying Vance supports a statewide ban on abortion, which “takes away our freedom.”

Like Trump, Vance has recently said that states should decide specific abortion policies, but he has previously supported banning abortion nationwide.

However, the Trump campaign called Walz “Tampon Tim” because of the state law he signed that requires menstrual products to be available to “all menstruating students in restrooms frequently used by students on campus.” 4th to 12th, according to the policy made by the school. district.”

A recent ad for the Trump campaign called Walz “very strange. Very powerful.”

But Walz’s addition to the ticket has energized Democratic voters on health care issues like Angel Palm, 32, a life coach for people with disabilities who lives in Fridley, Minnesota.

My son is diabetic and has medical expenses. It is very important,” he told KFF Health News. “I am very surprised.”

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