‘Show your compassion’: Iowans protest changes to food, health care assistance

DES MOINES — A single mother, Iowans with disabilities and those who care for children with autism pleaded with Iowa lawmakers to not vote for a bill they said will lead to children and vulnerable Iowans losing access to health care or food assistance.

“Eating is not a necessity, it is a ‘must’ in order to live,” Briana Jenkins told lawmakers during a public hearing Tuesday on Senate File 494, which would alter eligibility requirements for low-income Iowans to qualify for food and health care assistance.

The bill, passed by the Iowa Senate last month, is now eligible for debate and vote by the full House.

Jenkins is a single mother from Ankeny and said the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allows her to buy expensive baby formula for her infant daughter.

“The new changes would have a huge effect on myself, and so many of us would not be able to qualify for services,” she said.

Meanwhile, small business owners, pastors and a taxpayer relief group said requiring Iowans who are receiving public assistance benefits to undergo more rigorous eligibility verification reviews would bolster program efficiency, prevent fraud and force low-income Iowans to become more self-sufficient.

Jerry Akers, who owns and operates hair styling salons in northeast Iowa, said Iowa has a workforce shortage and one reason is people would rather stay on public assistance than work.

“Let’s be clear, I’m a firm proponent on providing a hand up, but not a handout, when it comes to welfare,” Akers said. “I truly believe when people are suffering, we need to find a way to get them over the hurdles that they are facing so they can get back on their feet. However, far too many use welfare as a crutch, allowing them to not work.”

Andres Reyes, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Perry, said the bill would “reignite a culture of personal accountability" and force people to become self-sufficient, improving society.

“Holding others accountable creates checks and balances for restraining assistance from those who are milking the system and adding nothing to it, while rewarding those working to build it,” Reyes said. “Holding others accountable produces equability.”

Former Iowa House Majority Leader Chris Hagenow, now a leader of Iowans for Tax Relief, said Iowans need to be good stewards of tax dollars and that the bill would help ensure only those who truly need public assistance the most receive benefits.

Asset tests

Dozens of Iowa organizations registered in opposition to the bill — including nurses, pediatricians, social workers and child and disability advocates — say the measure would raise barriers for low-income Iowans to qualify for food and health care assistance and result in thousands of Iowans being taken off Medicaid and food assistance programs.

The groups pointed to a projection from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency that predicts the bill will remove thousands of Iowans from the programs due to “discrepancies.”

Iowans receiving public assistance benefits would face new "asset tests" and regular checks to determine their eligibility for programs under the bill passed by the Senate.

The bill would limit households to a maximum of $15,000 in liquid assets and personal property in order to receive SNAP benefits. The applicant’s home, a first car of any value, and a second car worth up to $10,000 would not be included in that calculation.

The Senate bill also specifies recipients of public assistance would have 10 days to respond to discrepancies in their asset and income checks or risk losing their assistance.

Nearly 50,000 Arkansas residents lost their insurance in 2015 because they failed to respond in time under a 10-day deadline to provide documents verifying their income, despite the fact that many were eligible for help.

Iowa now requires recipients to meet an income threshold but does not restrict assets.

Republicans say the asset tests will prevent fraud and abuse, eventually saving the state more than $8 million annually.

Opponents argue the proposal will cause the loss of tens of millions in federal funding — meaning Iowans would continue to pay federal taxes but no longer see those tax dollars returning to the state to benefit Iowa families in need of assistance.

Medicaid

Monica Janelle, a mother from Ankeny with two children who have autism, said the bill would disqualify her sons from Medicaid waiver programs for people with intellectual disabilities as it would include retirement and college savings accounts as countable assets.

She said her sons were just approved last month for the Medicaid waiver — which provides job training, transportation and other services — after eight years of being on a waitlist.

Janelle said the bill imposes “harsh and unnecessary restrictions on families, cuts services to those with disabilities and it does the opposite of what the Medicaid waiver is intended to do.”

Iowa food banks and hunger assistance programs testified that Iowans already have difficulties accessing government food assistance, with SNAP participation at a 14-year low, while food banks and pantries are reporting record-high numbers of Iowans seeking help.

They warned the bill would push more Iowans into poverty by making it more difficult for Iowans — many of them children, people with disabilities and elderly — to qualify for assistance.

They also noted Pennsylvania in 2015 ditched its asset test for SNAP after a three-year pilot program that saw administrative costs outweigh reductions in spending.

And children's advocates argue the bill would result in thousands of Iowa children losing access to health care or food assistance. More than half of SNAP recipients are families with children. The Legislative Services Agency estimates 600 on the Children’s Health Insurance Program would lose benefits.

Fraud rare

Opponents also noted there is little fraud in Iowa’s SNAP (food assistance) and Medicaid programs.

For SNAP benefits, Iowa disqualified 195 out of 278,800 recipients for fraud during the 2022 fiscal year, according to latest “Fraud in Public Assistance Programs Report” from the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

Iowa’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit reported 235 open fraud causes, according to its latest fiscal year report. Of those, 187 were multistate civil cases and 48 were in-state civil fraud cases. More than 886,000 people are enrolled in Iowa’s Medicaid program.

‘Show compassion’

Tara Kramer, a former SNAP recipient who lives in federal subsidized housing in Des Moines, said she still experiences food insecurity despite a cost-of-living adjustment in her Social Security disability benefits that made her ineligible for food assistance.

Kramer read a letter from her neighbor, a veteran who gets $23 a month through SNAP who was unable to attend the hearing because he is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

“I am asking everyone here today to please show your compassion for the elderly, disabled, children and veterans and vote ‘no,’ ” Kramer read from the letter.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com