Oppose elected officials who oppose stronger nursing home regulations

Both Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Gov. Kim Reynolds have voiced strong opposition to proposed federally mandated rules that establish new minimum staffing levels at nursing homes. Iowa currently ranks near the bottom in the nation for resident-to-nursing staff ratios, and the alarming number of injuries, mistreatment, and even deaths of residents of Iowa’s nursing homes reflect this chronic understaffing of caregivers. Bird and Reynolds, who both receive hefty campaign contributions from nursing home operators, maintain that such rules would result in the closure of many nursing homes in Iowa and a serious lack of care for our state’s seniors. Contacted about the issue and provided with firsthand experience of the challenges of working as a caregiver in such short-staffed facilities, IA-02 Congresswoman Ashley Hinson stated too that she opposes such regulations, fearing that they will “put too much pressure on Iowa nursing homes, forcing them to end their services,” a myth debunked in states that aggressively strove to increase the level of their caregiving workforce.

As these politicians come up for re-election, I encourage Iowans to ask themselves what their priorities are. Are they for keeping these politicians’ campaign contributors happy, or for preventing our parents, grandparents, former teachers and neighbors, or possibly ourselves, from the indignity of lying in a urine-soaked bed for hours on end, having open purulent sores from sitting in one place for too long, and being given a lethal dose of medication from an overworked nurse? The choice is ours.

James Hidlebaugh

Waterloo