GOP Gov Field Supports New $460 Health Care Price Hike

DES MOINES – Republicans in Iowa’s state legislature are currently fast-tracking a bill that would increase health care premiums on working families by $460 this year. This deeply unpopular bill is a direct result of Kim Reynolds’ disastrous Medicaid privatization scheme, Randy Feenstra voting for the largest cut to Medicaid in history, and the state’s billion-dollar budget deficit — but the GOP gubernatorial field has refused to speak out against hiking health care premiums on working families.

The Republican gubernatorial field backed this health care price hike:

• Randy Feenstra voted for Reynolds’ disastrous Medicaid privatization scheme in the state legislature, which drove up costs and ripped health care away from working families. In Congress, Feenstra bragged about being a “key author” of his party’s deeply unpopular budget law that threatens health care for 106,700 Iowans and puts at least 20 rural hospitals on the brink of closure, as 117,890 Iowans are seeing their premiums skyrocket.

• Adam Steen praised D.C. Republicans passing the largest Medicaid cut in history and Reynolds privatizing Medicaid, saying “I support everything that Governor Reynolds is doing.”

• Zach Lahn has a history of opposing Medicaid expansion entirely — a position even more extreme than Reynolds’ disastrous privatization scheme.

• Brad Sherman and Eddie Andrews voted to kick thousands of Iowans off Medicaid and made it harder to get health insurance.

From Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez:

“Under Kim Reynolds and a decade of one-party rule, Iowa has seen a disastrous Medicaid privatization scheme, the largest cut to Medicaid in history, and back-to-back billion-dollar budget deficits. Now, Iowa Republicans want to spike health care premiums by $115 per person. Iowans deserve a governor who works tirelessly to protect their health and bring down costs, not Reynolds and the Republicans running to take her place gutting health care and raising prices on working families.”

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