IDP Chair Rita Hart Statement on a Decade of Kim Reynolds’ Medicaid Privatization Disaster
DES MOINES – On the ten year anniversary of Iowa Republicans privatizing Medicaid, IDP Chair Rita Hart released the following statement on how Kim Reynolds’ Medicaid mismanagement has completely failed Iowans — and how the Republicans running for governor would do nothing to reverse it:
“A decade of Kim Reynolds’ botched Medicaid privatization scheme has been a complete failure for Iowa. Reynolds putting for-profit companies first and working families last has driven up costs, ripped away health care, hurt Iowans with disabilities, and closed rural hospitals. Cuts at the federal level that Randy Feenstra voted for made things even worse, and none of the Republicans running for governor would do anything to reverse this disaster. Iowans are ready for change and have the opportunity in November to elect a governor who will get to work on day one to end Reynolds’ failed Medicaid experiment once and for all.”
The Republican gubernatorial field fully supports Reynolds’ Medicaid disaster:
- Randy Feenstra voted to pass Reynolds’ disastrous Medicaid privatization scheme in the state legislature. 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.
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