Iowa governor signs heightened public assistance requirements

DES MOINES — Low-income Iowans receiving health care and food assistance from government programs face additional eligibility and verification requirements with legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The new requirements apply to the food assistance program known as SNAP, the low-income health care program Medicaid, the children’s health care program known as CHIP and the Family Investment Program, which provides cash assistance to needy families.

The new state law disqualifies from food assistance any Iowans who have assets totaling more than $15,000 or a second vehicle worth more than $10,000, or an income of more than 160 percent of the federal poverty level. That income threshold equates to $23,328 for an individual or $39,776 for a family of three.

The new law also requires all public assistance recipients to complete a computerized identity verification questionnaire and requires SNAP and Medicaid recipients to cooperate with Child Support Services regarding child support payments.

Supporters have said the changes ensure only those Iowans who are truly in need of government assistance are the ones benefiting from the programs.

  Buy Photo

“I think every Iowan would agree we shouldn’t have fraud, waste or abuse in a system that is designed to help the neediest among us,” Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, said on a recent episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.

“We have seniors on fixed incomes. We ought to help them and make sure and verify them and get them on the road to being stable in their homes. We want to make sure kids are fed,” Sinclair said. “But we also want to make sure that we aren’t using the limited assets we have as a state for folks who don't necessarily need them.”

Medicaid and SNAP fraud are exceptionally rare: 195 out of 278,800 SNAP recipients were disqualified for fraud during the 2022 state budget year, according to a state report. There were 235 open fraud cases in the state’s Medicaid program, which has more than 886,000 people enrolled, according to the report.

Medicaid and SNAP are funded by the federal government. Medicaid is administered by the state — Iowa has hired private companies to manage the state’s program — and SNAP is administered jointly by the state and federal governments.

Critics of say the new law will knock eligible, needy Iowans off public assistance programs.

An analysis by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency projected that 1 percent of Iowans eligible for assistance will have their benefits canceled due to discrepancies in enrollment.

That equates to 8,000 Medicaid recipients, 2,800 SNAP recipients, 600 CHIP recipients and 100 FIP recipients, according to the Legislative Services Agency.

  Buy Photo

“It is a terrible economic decision. And even worse, it is morally reprehensible,” Iowa Rep. Josh Turek, a Democrat from Council Bluffs, said in April while state lawmakers debated the proposal.

The provisions in the new law will require the addition of more than 200 new state government workers in the state Department of Health and Human Services.

It will cost the state $7.5 million in the first two years to implement the new measures, and ultimately result in a net reduction in state spending of just over $8 million in the 2027 state budget year, according to Legislative Services Agency projections.

The legislation, Senate File 494, passed the Iowa Legislature with only Republican support.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com