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Now, as the DFL nominee for Minnesota governor, Klobuchar has made healthcare one of the defining issues of her campaign against the GOP nominee, House Speaker Lisa Demuth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Monday, during a stop at a medical facility in Maple Grove, Klobuchar called attention to her healthcare plan\u00a0<\/a>once again. In that plan, she has pledged to enact the Affordable Care Act tax credits at the state level if Washington refuses to act, direct the Minnesota Department of Commerce to review and potentially deny steep premium hikes, and expand the state government’s authority to purchase discounted prescription drugs in bulk, among other proposals.<\/p>\n “People are asking, ‘When am I going to have healthcare that fits my budget?’ The next governor of Minnesota has to answer that question,” Klobuchar said. “My opponent hasn’t even put out a healthcare plan.”<\/p>\n Demuth’s website\u00a0<\/a>does not list a specific healthcare section.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, in a statement, her campaign called Klobuchar a “career politician” who has failed to bring down healthcare costs and touted Demuth’s work as House Speaker around the reinsurance program that lowers rates by protecting insurance companies against high-cost claims. (Klobuchar’s website also states that she would “extend and strengthen Minnesota’s bipartisan reinsurance program.”)<\/p>\n “As House Speaker, Lisa Demuth fought to continue Minnesota’s nation-leading reinsurance program – formed because of Amy Klobuchar’s failed health care policies – and worked to give families more health plan options,” Demuth’s campaign said. “As Governor, Lisa will continue her bipartisan work supporting rural hospitals and making sure health care dollars only go to those who need it instead of to fraudsters and illegal immigrants.”<\/p>\n As House Speaker for the last two legislative sessions, Demuth has played a role in shaping healthcare policy at the state level. In 2025, she used Republican leverage in the tied House to successfully remove undocumented adults<\/a> from the state healthcare program known as MinnesotaCare, as part of an agreement DFL leaders made reluctantly to finalize the state budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n More recently, in the 2026 session, Demuth took part in bipartisan negotiations around hospital funding, including the highly publicized rescue plan for Hennepin County Medical Center. Ultimately, the legislature struck a deal that funded HCMC<\/a> without needing to increase a county sales tax, in addition to authorizing millions of dollars for rural hospitals.<\/p>\n “We heard the cry from across the state from critical-access hospitals, saying they’re really struggling in these times of affordability,” Demuth said at the end of the 2026 session. “Really good things there for our hospitals across the state, in addition to HCMC.”<\/p>\n