Medicaid recipients are registered to vote, and the program is on the ballot

In April of 2024, The Gazette published an op-ed I wrote detailing my fight with the Reynolds administration to secure voting rights for Iowans on Medicaid. The fight centered on a federal law, the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to offer voter registration to people registering for public assistance programs.

As I wrote, at the time, “Iowa’s Medicaid application form is 27 pages long. Many other states include a voter registration form in the packet. In Iowa, at the bottom of page 16, the packet contains one sentence and a link to the voter registration form. The link is printed out. An Iowan would have to type the 46-character link into their browser and access a printer to print it out. This is unlikely to register voters and states with similar policies have been found to be out of compliance with the NVRA.” The result was that many fewer people were registering to vote through Medicaid applications in Iowa than in almost any other state.

That op-ed was just the start. It took amendments, allies, speeches, and getting yelled at by the governor’s Health and Human Services (HHS) director. After months of fighting with the Reynolds administration, in August of 2024, we won. HHS finally caved and began including a full voter registration form in the Medicaid application.

It has now been a year since Iowa began this improved practice. The results are stunning. Nearly 10 times more Iowans on Medicaid are registering to vote through this program. Over 3,000 more people were registered through the program since the change was made, compared to the 12 months before.

Unfortunately, these new voters are entering an election cycle where Medicaid itself is on the ballot. All six members of Iowa’s federal delegation voted for huge cuts to the program. If these cuts are allowed to take effect, health care researchers at KFF estimate that 100,000 Iowans could lose their health care. People across rural Iowa could lose their hospitals.

I’m not in Congress, and I can’t fix the federal budget bill. What I can do is fight for the voices of Iowans to be heard. I took on the Reynolds administration and won voting rights for thousands of Iowans. Now these Iowans will have a chance to weigh in on the politicians who voted to take away their health care.

State Rep. Adam Zabner is a Democrat representing House District 90, which includes much of Iowa City.