MEET THE POTENTIAL VEEPS — Some names circulating as potential choices for Vice President Kamala Harris’ VP pick for her Democratic presidential run include a former astronaut and a couple of governors in battleground states, Chelsea and Toni report. All support abortion rights, like Harris, and have health policy backgrounds that include attempts to cancel medical debt, expand mental health care access and up Medicaid enrollment. Here’s who the Harris campaign is reportedly eyeing — and their health policy records: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear: He’s served as Kentucky governor since 2019, was state attorney general before that and has bested his Republican opponents in the deep-red state. Like Harris, he supports abortion rights and has opposed his state’s near-total abortion ban. He’s launched ads to call on state legislators to loosen the ban. As attorney general, Beshear joined lawsuits to protect the Affordable Care Act and filed lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for their alleged involvement in the state’s opioid crisis. In his first days in office, the two-term governor stopped his predecessor’s efforts to impose Medicaid work requirements and he reopened the state marketplace. Beshear follows in the footsteps of his father, who as governor expanded Medicaid in 2014 under the ACA and oversaw the creation of the state’s healthcare exchange. Beshear unsuccessfully fought legislative efforts last year to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. His veto was overridden by the Republican-controlled legislature. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker: Like Harris, Pritzker has sought to lower health care costs, signing legislation to prevent insurance hikes, require insurer price transparency and create a new state-based marketplace. Earlier this year, he signed legislation to remove barriers to mental health coverage, including prior authorization. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt Hotel chains, he’s funneled some of his personal wealth to back abortion rights. Last fall, he funded and launched a national abortion-rights group called Think Big America, which targets abortion rights ballot measures in other states. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro: Shapiro has taken an aggressive approach to medical debt. Earlier this year, he proposed using state money to wipe out $400 million of medical debt for Pennsylvanians. He’s signed legislation to expand telemedicine services for people in rural areas and increase regulatory oversight of pharmacy benefit managers, which manage drug benefits for insurers and large employers — a hot issue on Capitol Hill. Last year, Shapiro created a behavioral health council to bring local and state leaders together to discuss how to remove barriers to mental health care. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper: Expanding Medicaid access has been Cooper’s main health care focus. Last March, he signed legislation making North Carolina the 40th state to expand Medicaid. Cooper vetoed an abortion ban that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature overrode. He later joined an amicus brief filed by the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, urging the Supreme Court to protect access to mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortions. He’s asked CMS for a waiver requiring hospitals to relieve low-income North Carolinians of medical debt in exchange for Medicaid funds. That plan is still pending approval. On the national front, Cooper served on former President Donald Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis in 2017, which met to provide recommendations on how to combat drug overdoses. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly: Much of Kelly’s health policy has been focused on expanding health care access for veterans, sponsoring legislation to increase research into cancers in veterans and reintroducing legislation to allow military kids to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26. Kelly has cosponsored a number of bills to protect access to abortion and reproductive health care, including in vitro fertilization. Those bills have not moved in the Senate. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. It’s going to be an exciting few days for me between my bridal shower and the Olympics! Let’s hope this weekend is a bit less newsy than the last two weekends. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
|