Expanded Medicaid to cover Iowans

I am very disappointed that Gov. Terry Branstad has refused to accept expanded Medicaid coverage for 150,000 Iowans who desperately need health care, even though the federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for three years, then 90 percent. I agree with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin that expanding Medicaid coverage in Iowa would save the state money that it is now spending to subsidize care for some of the poor.

We need health care for everyone with sensible cost controls. It is pitiful that a million Americans go bankrupt each year because of health care crises, something that never happens in other developed countries with universal health care such as Germany. Moreover, those countries with universal health care spend about half as much per person as the United States does (19 percent GDP).

Please contact the governor and encourage him to expand Medicaid so that all Iowans can have health care.

John Macatee

Iowa City