Tim Kaine is in Hillary Clinton鈥檚 camp 鈥� and his party鈥檚 鈥� on the big health care issues, with a defining moment in his tenure as governor coming in 2007 after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. His response to the shooting was a $42 million legislative package to reform the state鈥檚 mental health system.
As a U.S. senator who was elected in 2012, he鈥檚 backed the Affordable Care Act and has pushed for expanded Medicaid eligibility in his state and others. A Catholic, he鈥檚 said he opposes abortion personally but supports a woman鈥檚 right to choose for herself.
Kaine did not mark himself as a health care reformer when he was Virginia鈥檚 governor, but his 2006-2010 term overlapped the recession when little reform was happening anywhere at state or national levels, said Peter Cunningham, a professor of health behavior and policy at Virginia Commonwealth University.
鈥淗e was probably pretty typical of the middle-of-the-road Democratic governors in sort of purple states,鈥� Cunningham said. 鈥淲hen the recession hit, that precluded any other major health reform effort that he might have contemplated.鈥�
Kaine has occasionally incited , however, as in 2007 when Virginia became the to require all girls get the human papillomavirus vaccine, protection against a virus that can cause cervical cancer, before enrolling in high school. In 2009, he backed a bill that in bars and restaurants in the tobacco-producing commonwealth.
Mental Health
At 32 fatalities excluding the gunman, the Virginia Tech massacre at the hands of a student with mental illness was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time.
Almost exactly later, Kaine signed a reform package into law bolstering funding for emergency mental health services, children鈥檚 mental health services, increased case managers and doctors and jail diversion projects, according to the Virginia Office of the Attorney General.
鈥淪omebody shouldn鈥檛 be imprisoned because we won鈥檛 provide funding for community mental health,鈥� Kaine said at a mental health conference in 2008, shortly after the bills were signed, according to the in Norfolk, Va.
The package made it easier for authorities to commit someone having a mental health crisis into treatment involuntarily. They no longer had to prove the patient was in 鈥渋mminent danger,鈥� instead, the new standard required they show a 鈥渟ubstantial likelihood鈥� that the person could cause serious harm to themselves or others.
Together, Kaine and the state鈥檚 General Assembly made a down payment on longer-term reforms for the delivery of mental health and behavioral health services in Virginia, Cunningham said.
Opioids
Since his election to the Senate four years ago, Kaine has cosponsored bills to an advisory committee to help the FDA approve new opioids, guidelines for the Department of Veterans Affairs聽to prescribe opioids, first responders from lawsuits when they administer emergency overdose drugs and a drug monitoring program for Medicare.
Many of those bills were rolled into 聽鈥� the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 signed by President Barack Obama in July 鈥� which also bore Kaine鈥檚 name as a cosponsor.
Affordable Care Act
Though he wasn鈥檛 in office while the ACA was being implemented and debated, Kaine Obamacare when he and has since cosponsored bills to improve the law.
Kaine has advocated for Medicaid expansion in Virginia and cosponsored to incentivize expansion in other states as well. Like Clinton, Kaine has adjusting the ACA to include some low-income families that aren鈥檛 currently covered, fixing the so-called 鈥渇amily glitch.鈥� This year, he cosponsored a to require more businesses to provide benefits under the ACA.
Abortion
Kaine, who worked with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras in 1980, follows the Catholic Church鈥檚 stand on abortion. His stance has drawn over the years.
鈥淧ersonally, I鈥檓 opposed to abortion and I鈥檓 opposed to the death penalty,鈥� he said on in June.
鈥淭he right thing for government is to let women make their own decisions,鈥� he continued.
That was a change from Kaine鈥檚 position in , when he supported parental consent laws and bans on 鈥減artial birth鈥� abortions, causing the Virginia chapter of NARAL Pro-Choice America to withhold an endorsement in his gubernatorial campaign. As , he signed a bill creating 鈥淐hoose Life鈥� license plates in Virginia, which he said was an issue of free speech.
Since then, Kaine has advocated for and opposed abortion restrictions.
In 2013, Kaine cosponsored to improve access to contraception.