FLASHBACK: Walz doubled down on support for government-run health care during gubernatorial campaign
Fox News
Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who is currently running to be the next vice president of the United States, once said in a gubernatorial debate that he supports “single-payer health care,” also known as “Medicare-for-all.”
“I think that’s probably the path where we end up,” Walz said in a 2018 debate while running for governor when asked, “Are you for single-payer?”
“And I say that because, be very clear about this, there were no protections for preexisting conditions before the ACA,” Walz continued. “A vote for the ACA was the first time in this nation’s history we had those protections and making sure people have that protection, making sure they were covered, and then making sure we were focused on preventative care, people were finally getting that under the ACA, we started to see health outcomes improve and that’s the real key to driving down insurance premium prices.”
Walz went on to say “let’s be very clear” that there is “no market in health care.”
“Because markets by nature would be a failure if someone didn’t have it, there’s not going to be, you cannot simply shrink a pool to the sickest people and say that’s where we are going to manage them when they’re in crisis. That’s not the way to go about this. The way to go about this is making sure everybody has that preventative care, making sure everybody has that access on the front end, you start to drive down prices. The ACA did that.”
Walz’s opponent, Republican Jeff Johnson, then pressed Walz on the issue.
“I’m not sure what your answer was. Do you support single-payer health care?”
“Yes,” Walz said. “That was the answer I just gave you.”
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Johnson interjected, “Are you for it?”
“Yes,” Walz said. “I’m going to push for not paying twice as much as any other industrialized nation. Getting half for it. I’m making sure that the 14 top nations that get the best returns at the least cost make sure you cut out that piece that is simply payer getting between people and their doctors.”
When Johnson countered that “single-payer” means “everybody loses their insurance” and “forced on to one government plan,” Walz countered, “We can do better.”
The comments from Walz come under the backdrop of Vice President Kamala Harris supporting “Medicare-for-all” when she ran for president in 2019. However, in August, her campaign claimed she will not push the subject of single-payer or “Medicare-for-all” during the campaign.
In 2019, Fox News spoke to Harris in the hallways of Capitol Hill, asking about her plans for providing health care.
“How important is it to your health care plan to get rid of private insurance companies? Because there is some confusion about that,” Peter Doocy asked Harris on Jan. 30, 2019.
“I’m glad you asked. Yeah. So, the bottom line and the most important is that everyone have access to health care,” Harris said. “That is the goal. That is the purpose for me supporting the policy of ‘Medicare-for-all.’
“If Congress votes in a way that reflects the values and desires of the American people, then Congress will vote for a policy that gives everyone access to health care,” she later said.
Her proposed solution was to provide “Medicare-for-all” because “Medicare works” and “it’s popular.”
“‘Medicare-for-all‘ will cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health, and substance-use disorder treatment, and comprehensive reproductive health care services,” Harris wrote. “It will also allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Peter Doocy contributed reporting.