Opening Comments at the August 29th Statehouse Medicaid Listening Post by Senator Amanda Ragan of Mason City, Senate Co-Chair of the Health Policy Oversight Committee
“I’m glad we are holding a Medicaid listening post today at the Iowa Statehouse. And I am glad you are here to share your experiences with the committee.
In the last two years, Democratic legislators have held more than 40 local listening posts on Medicaid privatization.
This issue has been discussed across Iowa, in large cities and in small towns, with rural folks and urban residents.
Medicaid consumers, family members, and health care providers have spoken out at our meetings.
Representatives of the Iowa Department of Human Services and the MCOs attended some meetings and made presentations.
At those meetings, some Iowans were able to get their immediate problems resolved.
Unfortunately, problems persist, the problems are serious, and the problems are systemic.
Iowa families, health care providers, and communities are suffering with late payments, burdensome paperwork, red tape, and unforeseen changes in the three MCOs.
Iowa’s Medicaid mess is everyone’s problem.
Medicaid provides health care to one in six Iowans, more than half a million people. Tens of thousands of Iowa jobs and hundreds of Iowa businesses provide Medicaid services to these folks.
Medicaid is the health care safety net that almost EVERY Iowa family depends on.
70% of all Medicaid dollars go to care services for disabled Iowans and the very poor elderly.
Each of us is only an accident, a disability, or a severe disease away from needing Medicaid services.
As we meet here today, Iowans are being denied health care, communities are losing local health care providers, and Iowans are losing jobs due to the very troubled Medicaid privatization changes.
This afternoon, the Legislature’s Health Policy Oversight Committee will meet.
It was created after House Republicans blocked the Senate’s bipartisan effort to either stop Medicaid privatization or to approve tougher protections for Iowans.
I expect the managed care organizations and the Branstad Administration will again try to paint a rosy picture of Iowa’s Medicaid mess.
The agenda for this afternoon’s meeting only provides 30 minutes for Iowans to be heard — at the very end of the meeting. That’s not right. That’s not fair.
We believe that Iowans should be heard first. Let their stories be known.
That’s the point of this morning’s meeting.
First, we’d like to thank everyone for coming to the Capitol today.
Second, we ask everyone to please limit their comments to 3 minutes each. If we finish with the speakers who have signed up in advance, we will provide as much opportunity as possible to those who signed up today.
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