Not to be outdone by the socialist health care proposal that Iowa House Democrats have introduced (House File 96) which would force Iowans into a government-run health care system that eliminates private health insurance, Joe Biden’s website indicates that he will introduce the Biden public option providing the choice to Americans to be covered under a Medicare-like plan rather than their current health care coverage. While the Biden Plan doesn’t eliminate private health insurance altogether, like the Iowa House Democrats plan, it has countless dangerous consequences.
These “free” health care plans proposed by Joe Biden and Iowa House Democrats are unaffordable and would lead to massively higher taxes on Iowa families and business. Not only that, but banning private health insurance as Iowa House Democrats and others on the national level have proposed, would lead to insurance and health care job losses in the thousands, take away choice and access, and ration care.
Let’s look at a study demonstrating how these plans threaten to close rural hospitals:
A report released this past year by Navigant studied the impact of a variety of proposals to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private health insurance companies. This analysis found that between 25 and 52 of Iowa’s 90 rural hospitals would be at high financial risk for closure if a government-run insurance plan entered the market. The study found that there would be losses of millions in revenue if current Medicare rates replaced current higher commercial rates to hospitals.
Just look at data from the Iowa Hospital Association. “More than 60 percent of hospital revenue is derived from government health insurance payments through Medicaid and Medicare”, and these “payment rates fall far short of covering the actual cost of care and do not keep up with rates of inflation.”
Iowa’s hospitals are already struggling due to lower government reimbursement rates in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, as well as the impacts this spring from the elimination of elective procedures due to COVID-19. Private pay insurance is critical to Iowa’s hospitals being able to stay afloat.
With these facts, it is easy to see how a public option will lead to rural hospital closure, meaning less access for Iowans to birth centers, mental health treatment, and emergency care.
Rather than proposing radical and dangerous health care plans, what the legislature did was fund an increase to Iowa’s Critical Access Hospitals in Medicaid in FY 2020 and FY 2021. All Iowa House Democrats voted against this funding.
On the Ballot: Your 2nd Amendment Rights
In 2019, the Iowa House and Iowa Senate voted in support of Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 18, which was the first step to putting a “2nd Amendment” into our Iowa Constitution. It restricts the government from infringing on a fundamental right, the right to keep and bear arms. SJR 18 passed on party lines, 53-46 in the House. During the debate, Democrats claimed to support the rights of gun owners while at the same time supporting bills that directly undermine 2nd Amendment freedoms.
The language in SJR 18 will have to pass both the House and Senate again within the next two years to be eligible for the public to vote on in 2022. If the House is controlled by Democrats, there will be no vote on SJR 18. Instead Iowans can expect votes on bills to take away their firearms, ammunition, and their freedom.
During the 88th General Assembly (2019-2020), Iowa House Democrats introduced at least 24 pieces of legislation aimed at restricting law-abiding Iowans’ firearms rights. Among them are these:
- Ban and confiscate commonly-owned firearms like shotguns, hunting rifles, and pistols that are used for self-defense.
- “Red flag” or gun violence restraining order laws, which confiscate firearms from law-abiding Iowans without due process
- Instantly criminalize any person who owns a “large capacity” magazine that can hold over 10 rounds of ammunition
- Jail law-abiding Iowans for up to ten years if they sell a “semiautomatic assault weapon”, a made-up class of weapons based solely on how a firearm looks
- Allow a sheriff to deny gun permits for almost any reason, taking Iowa backwards to a time of “may issue” permits
These bills and others like it were sponsored by numerous Democrats some of whom claimed to support firearms rights on the floor.
On the Ballot: Fiscal Responsibility
Over the last decade, Iowa House Democrats and special interest groups have consistently pressured legislators to spend every last dollar that the state collected in revenue and then some. They have voted to add BILLIONS to the state budget during recent sessions. This is no exaggeration. Nonpartisan research staff have drawn up the estimates on some of their proposals and simply added them up. All maybe nice to do, but impossible to fund. No one gets all the money they want. So complaints arise about “cutting education” or “not funding health care”. Of course, those get increases, just not all they want.
Fortunately, we have stood up for the hard-working taxpayers and fought off irresponsible spending plans offered by the Democrats. But without a Republican majority, there will be little fiscal discipline or thought about how additional spending will impact taxpayers. If Democrats are allowed to control the Iowa House, they will push unsustainable budgets that can’t help but raise taxes on Iowa families and small businesses by billions of dollars.
On the Ballot: Survivability of Agriculture
Agriculture is a major part of Iowa’s rural communities and critical to the health of our economy. With a rich history of family farming, one would think that Iowa Democrats would support our farmers and ag community. Instead they’re siding with the radical left and attempting to force their own version of a Green New Deal on Iowans. Iowa House Democrats have introduced several bills that target family farmers and make it more difficult for Iowans to go into agriculture. This bad legislation would end farming as we know it with overly burdensome regulations, increased costs for production, and higher taxes on family farms.
On the Ballot: Pro-Life Gains
And last, but not least, Iowa House Democrats have made no secret of the fact that they want to roll back all of the protections we have put in place for the unborn, showing no interest in any protections for preborn babies at all, even up to “birth” day. And to boot they have pushed to make taxpayers foot the bill for it. If they get the majority you can absolutely count on them doing exactly that.
