Iowa Lawmaker decries ‘fake news’ over low health premiums for legislators

DES MOINES - An Iowa lawmaker said he broke with practice Tuesday to respond to what he called 'fake news' about legislators' health insurance.

'Due to the fact that an intrepid reporter from one of our major newspapers has come out with a piece of fake news I feel compelled to answer it,” Rep. Guy Vander Linden, R-Oskaloosa, said while managing Senate File 230 during floor debate.

Vander Linden was referring to stories in the Des Moines Register about lawmakers not paying the same premiums as employees covered by the state health insurance plan.

Currently, lawmakers pay $20 a month for single health insurance and from $20 to $344 per month for family coverage, according to the Legislative Services Agency. Non-contract executive branch employees pay $26 to $79 a month for single coverage and from $210 to $335 per month for family coverage.

With passage of SF 230, Vander Linden said, lawmakers would pay the same health insurance premiums as those non-contract executive branch employees.

Vander Linden was upset that news reports suggested the bill had stalled in the House.

'It is certainly not stalled. We're about to pass it,” he said. 'Besides the provisions of the bill don't go into effect until the first of January, so I don't see any rush.”

He noted that House majority Republicans have been criticized for moving too fast with other legislation.

'This one doesn't go quite as fast and they're in shock,” he said.

The reason the premium situation was not corrected previously, Vander Linden said, was not because of foot-dragging by House Republicans.

'Those of you who have been here any period of time will realize that House Republicans have passed legislation to take care of this issue numerous times since 2011,” he said. The House has voted at least 12 times to approve at least seven bills to correct the situation, according to House staff.

If anyone is to blame, Vander Linden asserted, it is former Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

'It always died in the Democratic-controlled Senate. So to blame House Republicans for any delay seems to me to be disingenuous,” he concluded.

The bill would lower general fund expenditures by an estimated $235,000 in fiscal 2018 and $470,000 annually beginning with fiscal 2019, the Legislative Services Agency found. Payments by legislators and full-time employees of the General Assembly would increase by a like amount.

BAN ON CONTRACT DEALS

The House also approved, 57-41, a ban on local governments requiring contractors to sign a project-labor agreement to win a contract that involves public funds. Senate File 238 also banned the use of prequalification questionnaires for bidders that would allow other contractors to gain information about competitors, said bill manager Rep. Jarad Klein, R-Keota.

Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Rapids, offered an amendment to strike most of the 'outrageous sections” of the bill, which she called an 'attack on local governments and good, smart good government and good, smart economic development.”

'If you are fed up as I am of the bills passing this chamber that erode local control, then vote ‘yes,'” she said.

Her amendment was ruled not germane.

The Senate earlier approved the bill, 26-21.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com.