2022 MN Governor's race: on Health Care


Michelle Benson: Opposes government run health care

Patient Centered Healthcare: A truly competitive health care market is beneficial to all Minnesotans. Competition and innovation are key to making health care more accessible and affordable. Government-run one-size-fits-all health care puts bureaucrats, not patients, at the center of health care. You should be in control of your health care and your children's health care. Any medical procedure requires your voluntary, informed consent.

Your Data. Your Privacy. Your Rights.

Government data should be public and transparent. Your personal data is private and protected. Private medical information and health status are your most private data and must be protected. Let's stand up together against big government and big tech who both want our private data.

Source: 2022 Minnesota Governor campaign website Michelle4MN.com Dec 23, 2021

Mike Murphy: Protect pre-existing conditions; more pricing transparency

Mike will always support protecting individuals with pre-existing conditions, especially those affected by COVID-19. No matter what comes of the Affordable Care Act, Mike will always fight to ensure those who need health coverage will receive care.

Price transparency, in addition to access to information about quality, empowers patients to shop for the most effective, lowest-cost health care available. It also drives prices down as health care providers compete for market share. The promise of cost control through consumer empowerment has made transparency an objective among legislatures.

MinnesotaCare & Medical Assistance programs must be continuously monitored. Mike believes our healthcare experts & legislators need to re-evaluate income requirements to join these programs. Due to high costs, most small businesses cannot afford to offer their employees health insurance. Mike proposes expanding these programs to small businesses and sole proprietors who cannot provide healthcare coverage.

Source: 2022 Minnesota governor campaign website MikeMurphyForMN.com Feb 16, 2021

Paul Gazelka: MinnesotaCare would decimate rural hospitals & doctors

Gazelka expressed concerns about the impact on rural hospitals because programs like MinnesotaCare have a lower reimbursement rate than commercial insurers. "We think that would totally decimate the rural hospitals, rural doctors," he said. "I've heard from a number of rural hospitals and doctors that that would be the worst thing that they could possibly have. Doctors have told me that if wouldn't even be worth it for them to be in Minnesota."
Source: Minnesota Public Radio on 2022 Minnesota Gubernatorial race Feb 21, 2019

Scott Jensen: Not an anti-vaxxer, but the patient gets to choose

[On COVID-19]: "When people call me an anti-vaxxer, I think that's sort of remarkable considering my children are fully vaccinated. I doubt that there are a whole lot of Minnesotans who purchase vaccines as my family," he said. "I'm just really a strong arm. I think the patient gets to choose. You can't tell me the vaccine is safe for me. You can decide if it's safe for you."
Source: Southwest News Media on 2022 Minnesota Gubernatorial Race Mar 11, 2021

Scott Jensen: COVID: Opposes ineffective mask mandates

Jensen does say he opposes mask mandates because he believes anything less than an N-95 mask is largely ineffective. "We should get rid of the mask mandate at this point in time," he says. "If people want to wear a mask they should wear a mask...wearing a cloth mask or surgical mask, these were never intended to stop viral particle transmission."
Source: KSTP-TV on 2022 Minnesota Gubernatorial Race Mar 11, 2021

Scott Jensen: Strongly opposes single payer healthcare for Minnesota

Single payer healthcare will not solve the health care problems in Minnesota and will damage patient-doctor relationships. It will foster apathy, increase low value services utilization, undermine commitment to service, compromise quality of care, increase waiting time, and reduce provider career satisfaction. Dr. Jensen strongly opposes single payer healthcare for Minnesota.
Source: 2022 Minnesota Governor campaign website DrScottJensen.com Dec 30, 2021

Tim Walz: COVID: followed the science, on public health measures

Senator Tina Smith described [Walz's gubernatorial] race as a choice between a DFL incumbent "who followed the science" and kept the state's death rate during the COVID-19 pandemic the lowest in the Midwest and a GOP challenger [Scott Jensen] "who has spread misinformation" about the virus.

A Rochester physician and DFL activist [summarized] that the COVID-19 pandemic was the most profound health care crisis the country has faced in a century, and Gov. Walz and his team provided "leadership in uncertain times": "The governor made tough but necessary choices to limit the spread of the disease. We will never know who didn't die because of the Walz administration's efforts--whose parent or whose child (didn't die). That is the challenge of public health."

DFL supporters contrasted Walz's record with the comments by Jensen, who has compared public health measures to limit the spread of the disease as akin to Kristallnacht, when Nazis in Germany torched synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes.

Source: Duluth News Tribune on 2022 Minnesota Gubernatorial race Nov 3, 2022

  • The above quotations are from 2022 Minnesota Gubernatorial race: debates and news coverage.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Tim Walz on Health Care.
Candidates and political leaders on Health Care:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Aug 18, 2024