(DES MOINES) By a strict party-line vote of 26 to 21, the Iowa Senate today approved a resolution opposing recent efforts by the U.S. House of Representatives to dramatically change to Medicare and Medicaid. |(DES MOINES) By a strict party-line vote of 26 to 21, the Iowa Senate today approved a resolution opposing recent efforts by the U.S. House of Representatives to dramatically change to Medicare and Medicaid.
The resolution states that the Congressional action would “lead to fewer Americans, especially those most vulnerable due to age, disability, or poverty, being able to obtain or retain health care coverage.”
Senator Jeff Danielson of Black Hawk, the resolution’s floor manager, said this issue is especially important to Iowa because the state has so many seniors.
“These are the very people we should be looking out for, not looking down on,” said Danielson. “Shifting the burden to them for the high cost of health care is just plain wrong. This is about economic security for those who’ve earned it and for those, who through no fault of their own, might fall through the cracks.”
Senator Brad Zaun of Polk County was the only Republican to speak on the resolution, calling it a “stupid little resolution” that should not have been brought to the floor.
Zaun also said the issue did not affect Iowans. The cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are part of the so-called “Paul Ryan plan” to replace traditional Medicare with a plan under which individuals would buy their own private insurance with the help of government subsidies.
