Walz has some history with taking on corporate interests in health care.
With a Democratic state Legislature, Walz has launched a prescription drug affordability board that can set limits on what insurers pay. He signed a bill to help people afford insulin in emergency situations, and the state this year reached a settlement with Eli Lilly to cap all insulin prices at $35 for the next five years.
Walz has said his health policy priorities have been shaped in part by his personal experience. His father died of cancer when Walz was 19, leaving his mother drowning in medical debt.
In June, Walz signed a law banning medical providers from withholding medically necessary care due to unpaid debt.
Minnesota also aims to block for-profit insurers from participating in its Medicaid program beginning next year. The provision, which was included in an omnibus spending bill signed into law in May, would restore a ban that had been in place for 40 years before the GOP-controlled Legislature repealed it in 2017.
The ban will only immediately impact UnitedHealthcare, which sued the state earlier this month.
But Walz backed down from two bills last year that aimed to rein in hospital costs and mandate hospital and clinic staffing, after the nonprofit Mayo Clinic health system threatened to pull billions of dollars in new investments.
Mayo Clinic is a powerhouse in the state. It’s the largest employer, generates tens of billions of dollars in profit and attracts hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research grants. Walz and the Legislature watered down a bill that would have curbed health spending, as well as one that would have required hospitals to create staffing plans.
