ICYMI: Reuters: Lifelong Iowa Republicans Are Ready to Reject Ashley Hinson For Voting to Rip Away Healthcare
Shannon Gooden, Iowan Concerned About Rising Medical Costs: “I’ve Always Voted Republican, But It’s Gotten to the Point Now […] Something Needs to Change”
Reuters: “For Bev Leffler, a 72-Year-Old Longtime Republican […] She Sees the Closure and the Medicaid cuts as part of a Broader Erosion of Healthcare Access for Vulnerable Americans and Worries About Her Great-Grandson, Who Relies on Medicaid to Manage Diabetes”
DES MOINES – According to a new report from Reuters, Iowa Republicans are demanding change after Ashley Hinson’s vote for the biggest cuts to Medicaid in history are threatening to kick over 110,000 Iowans off their health care and forcing hospitals across the state to close.
Longtime Iowa Republicans who are now being forced to travel farther for care or are at-risk of losing their Medicaid coverage are telling Hinson that “something needs to change” and are ready to “vote Democrat now.”
“Iowa Republicans are fed up with Ashley Hinson after she voted to strip away their healthcare access to pay for massive tax breaks for millionaires like herself and her wealthy donors,” said Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Drew Myers. “While hospitals are closing and Iowans are getting priced out of their health insurance, Hinson’s been busy in Congress making herself richer. Now, even lifelong Iowa Republicans are jumping at the opportunity to reject her in November.”
Missed the report? See below for key highlights:
Reuters: Healthcare gives Democrats a potent midterms attack line in Iowa and beyond
- Shannon Gooden has voted Republican her entire life, including for Donald Trump three times. But the looming closure of the rural Iowa health clinic where she works has her questioning that loyalty ahead of November’s midterm elections.
- Her unease over medical costs and access represents an opportunity for Democrats.
- “I was raised a Republican, and I’ve always voted Republican, but it’s gotten to the point now, more what are you going to do for us?” said Gooden, 56, who is a receptionist at the River Hills Community Health Center in Centerville, a two-hour drive south of Des Moines. “Something needs to change.”
- While River Hills in Centerville has not publicly attributed its planned closure on July 31 to any action by the Trump administration, Gooden sees it as part of a broader rollback of support for low-income Americans.
- Her frustrations echo findings from a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll last month that found healthcare was the cost voters most wanted Congress to address, ahead of housing, food and gas.
- A major flashpoint is $1 trillion in Republican-backed Medicaid cuts over a decade. Though they do not take effect until 2027, opponents are already tying them to clinic closures, which providers say are also driven by staffing shortages, low reimbursement rates and fewer people in the areas they serve.
- [Josh Turek’s] Republican opponent, U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, voted for the Medicaid cuts, arguing that the program is rife with waste and abuse. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, roughly three-quarters of improper payments stem from insufficient documentation, not fraud.
- Hinson declined an interview request.
- KFF, a health policy group, estimates Iowa will lose about $9 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade. Over the past year, seven Iowa clinics and hospitals have announced closures or service cuts, with some citing the expected loss of Medicaid revenue as a factor.
- Located in a strip mall in Centerville, a former coal-mining town where poverty is nearly twice the state average, River Hills has long served as a lifeline for local residents. More than half its patients rely on Medicaid, according to Gooden, and some walk to appointments because they do not own a car.
- The exact cause of the closure remains unclear. River Hills has cited broader financial pressures facing rural healthcare providers and did not respond to a request for further comment.
- For Bev Leffler, a 72-year-old longtime Republican, the explanation matters less than the outcome. She sees the closure and the Medicaid cuts as part of a broader erosion of healthcare access for vulnerable Americans and worries about her great-grandson, who relies on Medicaid to manage diabetes.
- “They are targeting the people that need it most, the very poor,” Leffler said. “I would vote Democrat now.”
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