In the wake of reports that President Donald Trump personally put a stop to Governor Kim Reynolds’s stopgap proposal to stabilize the insurance market in the state, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price released the following statement:
“The failed leadership of Governor Reynolds in Iowa and Donald Trump in Washington D.C. is putting Iowa families in danger. 72,000 Iowans will face a 57% premium increase next year because our Governor can’t lead, and our President is willing to throw us under the bus to score political points. I am disgusted and appalled. Iowa deserves better. America deserves better.”
Excerpt from the initial report below:
WASHINGTON POST: As ACA enrollment nears, administration keeps cutting federal support of the law
“For months, officials in Republican-controlled Iowa had sought federal permission to revitalize their ailing health-insurance marketplace. Then President Trump read about the request in a newspaper story and called the federal director weighing the application.
Trump’s message in late August was clear, according to individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations: Tell Iowa no.
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act see the president’s opposition even to changes sought by conservative states as part of a broader campaign by his administration to undermine the 2010 health-care law. In addition to trying to cut funding for the ACA, the Trump administration also is hampering state efforts to control premiums. In the case of Iowa, that involved a highly unusual intervention by the president himself.”