IowaCare to end, be replaced with Iowa Health and Wellness Plan

A health care program for low-income individuals not eligible for Medicaid will end this year and be replaced with what a spokesman called "a much better program."

IowaCare provides limited services for adults ages 19 through 64 who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid. The purpose of IowaCare is to provide some health care coverage to people who would otherwise have no coverage, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services online on its website.

The program is set to expire at the end of this year and be replaced with a new program.

"It has been in existence since 2005 and it ends this calendar year because it's being replaced by a much better program," said Roger Munns, spokesman for the state's Department of Human Services. "This is the topic of a very large controversy at the Statehouse this year. Legislators and the governor have come up with a compromise plan that will replace IowaCare."

On May 23, the Iowa Legislature enacted the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan. The plan is a compromise between Gov. Terry Branstad's Healthy Iowa Plan and Medicaid expansion, according to a state Department of Human Services brief online.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan will cover all Iowans age 19 to 64 with incomes under 138 percent of the Federal Poverty level. The plan will provide a comprehensive benefit package and provider network, along with "important program innovations that will improve health outcomes and lower costs," according to DHS.

“This was done back when and it was an outreach and an effort to try to provide services for people that didn't have it," Branstad said.

“I think one of the shortcomings of IowaCare was that people who didn't live in the Iowa City or the Des Moines areas had to travel such a distance," Branstad said. "With the new Accountable Care organizations, we're going to be able to deliver this much closer to home, and I think also there will be much more of a focus on improving the health and not just providing the services.”

The department is filing a waiver to Medicaid rules to create a new program, Munns said. IowaCare itself is a waiver of Medicare rules.

"We are now creating a new one thanks to an agreement in the legislature," Munns said.

Munns said IowaCare recipients will receive information on what they need to do and whether or not they are eligible for the substitute plan.

"It (IowaCare) offers limited services in a limited network and it's been the subject of a great deal of controversy of how to fix it and it's now going to be fixed," Munns said. "It will be a lot better."

He said 70,000 people are now receiving IowaCare.