Walz: ‘Next Democratic president better figure out a way to get universal health care’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) advised the next Democratic president to focus on passing universal healthcare, a policy measure that has been hotly debated within the party in recent years.

“We have to figure out, once we move in a progressive way, once we see a Barack Obama win, once we see a Congress win, it has to be about not holding power for the sake of holding power, it has to be about passing things,” Walz said on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight.”

“And for this — I —Donald Trump has encouraged me, when we take power back, I’ll tell you what — the next Democratic president better figure out a way to get universal health care or we’re back in the same situation again,” he added.

In the last decade, there have been growing calls for universal health care on the left, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has seen his political star rise with two presidential runs in 2016 and 2020, being a leading proponent of “Medicare for All.”

Hillary Clinton, who beat Sanders for the nomination in 2016, said single-payer healthcare will “never, ever” happen during that campaign, while President Biden said he would veto Medicare for All during the 2020 campaign, pointing to the price tag.

Walz emerged as a national political figure shortly before being selected as Vice President Harris’s running mate in her 2024 race for the White House. He announced in January that he would not run for re-election in Minnesota, amid a growing Republican scrutiny of welfare fraud in the state.

In polling from late last year, the majority of U.S. voters said health care was unaffordable and were open to a health insurance system that didn’t connect coverage to employment.

Seventy-six percent of voters said they agreed with the statement: “We need to switch to a different system of health insurance where people can change jobs or become self-employed and not have to worry about losing their health insurance.”

Following the 2024 elections, the Democratic Party has been torn between the progressive wing of the party, which wants to see the party move to the left in future elections, and a more moderate wing that wants a shift to the middle.