Iowa Democrats offer health insurance option

DES MOINES - Two Democratic legislators Friday called for shifting Iowa's privately run Medicaid system back to a fee-for-service state program in a cost-saving move they say would fund a new public health insurance option for Iowans facing skyrocketing premiums.

Under the proposal from Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, and Rep. John Forbes, D-Urbandale, farmers, small business owners and other Iowans below incomes of 400 percent of the federal poverty level would be able to buy health insurance through the individual marketplace and still receive subsidies.

Called the Healthy Iowans for a Public Option, or HIPO, the plan would first roll back Iowa's Medicaid privatization and then create a public health insurance option.

The proposal would require major changes in Iowa's Medicaid system - at best, an uphill climb in the Republican-controlled Legislature - and federal approval of the changes, which they conceded could take until mid-2018 or early 2019.

Up to 72,000 Iowans face the prospect of spiraling insurance costs when they purchase plans under the Affordable Care Act. With open enrollment for that beginning Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds' administration last week withdrew a proposal to rewrite the rules of Obamacare for Iowa in an attempt to temper rates and draw more insurance companies.

The federal government said it needed weeks more to study the plan, in addition to nearly four months it already had.

'What we have is failing Iowans,” McCoy said at a Statehouse news conference.

He and Forbes said they hoped to persuade majority Republican legislators and the governor to consider their plan as a starting point for bipartisan negotiations.

But the idea was met with strong skepticism.

'The Democrats' proposal is a sugar pill,” said Reynolds spokeswoman Brenna Smith. 'It provides no relief for 22,000 suffering Iowans in 2018 and will likely cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

'Obamacare is suffocating states' ability to innovate. It's an unaffordable, unsustainable and unworkable law,” she added. 'Congress has to do its job and repeal and replace Obamacare. Until power is returned to states, there will be no innovation and no affordable, high-quality health care.”

Reynolds' opponent in June's GOP gubernatorial primary election, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, said it's not good enough to just say Congress needs to fix this.

He called for a legislative special session yet this year to pass measures allowing Iowans facing spikes in their individual insurance costs to be covered by the same plan that insures the governor, lawmakers and state employees.

'It's a good option for people to consider,” said Corbett, noting the affected Iowans are comparable with the population size of Council Bluffs.

'This is critical. It's a significant bloc of citizens and these are working citizens of Iowa that are in limbo-land now,” Corbett said.

He said the McCoy-Forbes approach might be something that could be considered as a long-term concept, but said pulling back existing contracts with the private companies managing Medicaid in order to enable wider insurance access 'is not doable.”

House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said the Democrats' call for a government-run health insurance plan would do nothing to help the 22,000 Iowans who could have no health insurance options in 2018.

'It's a half-baked idea that hasn't even worked in the most liberal of states,” she said. 'This is a political ploy that will end up costing Iowans hundreds of millions of dollars and turn choice and control over to the government. The massive costs built into this plan show Democrats don't care about the future impact on taxpayer dollars.”

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said the Healthy Iowans for a Public Option offered by McCoy and Forbes is an unworkable "fantasy proposal" because more government involvement in health care means higher costs, less consumer choice and rationing of health care.

'Iowa does not need to experiment with costly socialized medicine," Kaufman said in a statement. "The time for plans without credibility or scrutiny is over,” he added. 'If we allow the government to take over more of our health care system, hardworking Iowa families will face crippling tax increases, high wait times, and worse care.”

McCoy, however, said Iowans are going to be hurt in this health care impasse and Iowa Republicans have yet to put forth a meaningful plan.

'We've all watched Congress dither, delay and fail in our efforts to improve our health care system,” he said.

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