NEW: Zach Lahn’s Extreme Health Care Agenda Would Make Iowans Sicker
DES MOINES – New reporting from The Iowa Independent details how career political operative and Kansas carpetbagger Zach Lahn supports an extreme health care agenda that would make Iowans sicker and threaten access to health insurance, life-saving cancer treatments, and reproductive care.
During Lahn’s long career as a political operative, he spent years opposing Medicaid expansion. Lahn “oversaw an unsuccessful campaign to stop Montana from opting in to the ACA’s optional Medicaid expansion program” — a position even more extreme than Iowa’s privatized Medicaid scheme. 180,000 Iowans now have access to health insurance because Iowa expanded Medicaid, but that care would be under threat with Lahn in charge, who called Medicaid expansion “bad policy” and a “mess.”
Lahn has also “endorsed a ban on mRNA vaccines,” which “researchers say … can be used to help treat cancer.” Iowa is the number one state for new cancer growth, but Lahn opposes revolutionary cancer treatments and has pushed extreme vaccine conspiracy theories.
Lahn also wants to go even further than Kim Reynolds on restricting access to reproductive care. Lahn supports an extreme abortion ban from the moment of conception and “opposes allowing individuals to obtain medication abortion by mail.”
From Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez:
“After a decade of one-party rule, Iowans are losing access to health care, rural hospitals are closing, and fundamental freedoms are under attack. Now, Zach Lahn wants to make things worse by opposing Medicaid expansion, threatening access to life-saving cancer treatments, and going even further than Kim Reynolds’ extreme abortion ban. Iowans deserve a governor who will protect and expand health care, not place it further out of reach.”
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