Tim Walz pick excites hopes of taking US healthcare beyond Obamacare era

Advocates are enthused by Harris's running mate, who as Minnesota governor called healthcare a basic human right'

When Kamala Harris picked the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as veep for the Democratic presidential ticket, advocates for healthcare reform felt a jolt of electricity.

Here, they saw a man who proclaimed healthcare a basic human right", reformed medical debt collections, and who laid the groundwork for expanded government insurance and denied corporate health insurers contracts with Medicaid, a state-run health insurance program for the poor. Walz even once joined Harris at an abortion clinic in support of abortion rights.