Tim Kaine on Health Care Democratic Senate Challenger; previously Governor

Praised Virginia's Medicaid expansion

Tim Kaine (D): Supports ACA; has voted against all efforts for full or partial repeal. Praised Virginia's Medicaid expansion.

Corey Stewart (R): Full repeal. "ObamaCare has failed." Called Virginia Medicaid expansion "a major disaster for our party." Replace Medicaid with state block grants.

Increase Medicaid funding for low-income individuals

Evan McMullin's answer: No

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes

Mike Pence's answer: Yes, I support a majority of the plan but not all aspects

Donald Trump's answer: No, open the markets so insurers can compete across state lines and reduce costsGary Johnson's answer (Libertarian Party): No, government should not be involved in healthcare

Darrell Castle's answer (Constitution Party): No, government should not be involved in healthcare

Q: Should the federal government increase funding of health care for low income individuals (Medicaid)?

Evan McMullin's answer: No

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes

Mike Pence's answer: Yes

Donald Trump's answer: Yes

Gary Johnson's answer (Libertarian Party): No, and each state should decide their own level of coverage

Darrell Castle's answer (Constitution Party): No

Regulate the prices of life-saving drugs

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes and the government should invest in researching new life-saving drugs

Mike Pence's answer: No, and the government should never regulate prices of private businesses

Evan McMullin's answer: No, and the government should never regulate prices of private businesses

Supports federal requirement that children get vaccinated

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes

Mike Pence's answer: Yes

Evan McMullin's answer: Yes

Darrell Castle's answer (Constitution Party): No

Gary Johnson's answer (Libertarian Party): No

Donald Trump's answer: Yes

With consensus on wars, we'll take better care of vets

Let Medicare negotiate rates for prescription drug prices

Allen on Medicare, said Part D has helped seniors pay for their medications. Allen claims the $700 billion that "ObamaCare" takes out would hurt seniors. Kaine countered that money would be moved to programs that help seniors live healthier and prevent some medical procedures.

Inaction was not a solution for healthcare

Kaine said in a statement that insurance premiums and the number of uninsured both rose dramatically during Allen's term in the Senate. "Clearly, inaction was not a solution, and neither are continued calls for repeal. Instead, we must work together to strengthen this existing program and improve cost controls," Kaine said.

Public option puts some real competition into the system

KAINE: Primarily insurance companies. They do better if they can kick people off insurance or not cover people who they say have preexisting conditions. They fought against it hard in the 1990s & are fighting against it now. But the overwhelming majority of the American public think the system is broken and they want health insurance reform. They want a public option to put some real competition into the system.

Q: We're seeing some opposition, even from conservative Democrats, because of pressure from industry.

KAINE: This is a heavy lift. Every president since President Truman has said, we need to find a health care future where we have a competitive insurance market and all Americans receive coverage. But all the polling I've seen says the overwhelming majority of the American public support the basic principles of lowering costs for families and businesses, preserving choices, and actually expanding choice with a public option.

Invest in community-based mental health care

Expand pre-natal care to reduce infant mortality rate

Mental health system is chronically under-funded

Six percent of Virginians have a serious mental illness, and one of every four citizens of the Commonwealth has a diagnosable mental illness of some type. Most of us have been directly impacted by mental illness among friends, families, or co-workers, and we know firsthand the magnitude of this problem. But due to chronic under-funding and an insufficient focus on the quality of care, our mental health system has not been measuring up to the needs of Virginia's mentally ill.

The strain on our overloaded case managers mean that thousands of Virginians with mental health needs are not getting treatment when they need it. Many are not being treated at all. If we identify people with mental illnesses and provide them with proper treatment and support, we serve them and our communities better.

1 million Virginians do not have health insurance

The cost of these services has significantly increased the cost of health insurance, moving it beyond the reach of many small employers and the self-employed. An estimated 1 million Virginians do not have health insurance. As a result, many of our citizens often do not receive the preventive care that is so important in reducing the onset of more serious health problems.

We must continue to work together to strengthen health and health care in Virginia. And there is so much that we can do to improve. The first step is helping Virginians take better care of themselves. While there are a growing number of exceptions, our health care system does not consistently encourage healthy living in a meaningful way

Bush fights states getting cheap Rx for seniors

Our seniors were promised medications but got poor planning

One out of 7 Virginians lack health insurance

Adopt national health reform legislation before the end of the year.

In a letter to congressional leadership, 22 governors are urging federal lawmakers to adopt national health reform legislation before the end of the year to provide families and businesses with much-needed security and stability.

`We commend you and your colleagues for provisions included in your bills that will help states,` the governors wrote. `Many of the provisions will allow states to achieve long term savings and help cover those who currently go without health coverage. We recognize that health reform is a shared responsibility and everyone, including state governments, needs to partner to reform our broken health care system.`

`Efforts at the federal level, like the recent and critical investments that support states` HIV and prevention initiatives, are beginning the work to lower health care costs. Our citizens and our states, however, will only achieve the health care security and stability they need if we succeed in working together to achieve health care reform.`

Opposes repealing ObamaCare.

Christian Coalition publishes a number of special voter educational materials including the Christian Coalition Voter Guides, which provide voters with critical information about where candidates stand on important faith and family issues. The Christian Coalition Voters Guide summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: "Repealing "Obamacare" that forces citizens to buy insurance or pay a tax"

Religious exemption from ObamaCare individual mandate.

Congressional Summary: To provide an additional religious exemption from the individual health coverage mandate. This Act may be cited as the `Equitable Access to Care and Health Act` or the `EACH Act`. The `Religious Conscience Exemption` exempts individuals who are members of a recognized religious sect which relies solely on a religious method of healing, and for whom the acceptance of medical health services would be inconsistent with their religious beliefs.

Supporters reasons for voting YEA: (TheHill.com weblog, April 29, 2013): `We believe the EACH Act balances a respect for religious diversity against the need to prevent fraud and abuse,` wrote Reps. Aaron Schock (R-IL) and William Keating (D-MA). `It is imperative we expand the religious conscience exemption now as the Administration is verifying the various exemptions to the individual mandate,` they wrote. Religious exemption from ObamaCare has come up before, including contraception. The EACH Act, however, deals only with exemptions from the insurance mandate.

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (CHILD, Inc. `Children`s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty`, Dec. 2014): The Christian Science church is pushing hard to get another religious exemption through Congress. The EACH Act exempts everyone with `sincerely held religious beliefs` from the mandate to buy health insurance. We are particularly concerned about uninsured children: hundreds of American children have died because of their family`s religious objections to medical care. The EACH Act increases the risk to children in faith-healing sects and the cost to the state if the children do get medical care. Some complain that their church members should not have to pay for health care that they won`t use. But insurance works on the assumption that many in the pool of policyholders will not draw from it. Most people with fire insurance don`t have their homes burn, for example.

Keep ObamaCare's prevention, treatment, & recovery services.

Excerpts from Letter from 20 Senators to President Trump: Repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with no clear plan for replacement will substantially worsen the opioid epidemic. Last year, Congress took important steps to address this national public health crisis, enacting two bipartisan laws to address the opioid epidemic and reform the way our health system treats mental health and substance use disorders.

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act improved access to substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery services. It promoted the use of best practices when prescribing opioid pain-killers, strengthening state prescription drug monitoring programs, and expanding access to the life-saving drug naloxone.

The 21st Century Cures Act also included critical mental health and substance use disorder reforms, strengthening enforcement of mental health parity laws, promoting the integration of physical and mental health care. Most importantly, the 21st Century Cures Act dedicated $1 billion in new grant funding, which will be essential to helping states provide prevention, treatment, and recovery services to patients These bipartisan advances will be fundamentally undermined by repeal of the ACA.

Opposing argument: (Warren, D-MA, in StatNews.com, 11/28/2016): Senator Elizabeth Warren railed against the 21st Century Cures, saying the bill had been `hijacked` by the pharmaceutical industry. `I cannot vote for this bill,`` Warren said. `I will fight it because I know the difference between compromise and extortion.` The current legislation includes $500 million for the FDA, well below the amount Democrats had sought. Warren and Washington Senator Patty Murray have long argued that they would only support Cures legislation that included significant investment in basic medical research. While Warren said she supported many of the provisions, she called others `huge giveaways` to the drug industry.