I have been working with Iowa legislators and three different Governors on health care reform for more years than I care to remember, and this is the most significant and happiest day of that effort.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare (because, Obama does care) is a major victory for all Americans – those with health insurance and those without. We are now on a path to expand access, lower costs for businesses, large and small, individual consumers and taxpayers, and increase preventative care for all Iowans.
This decision is a historic milestone in the creation of an American social safety net. It is not hyperbole to suggest it is one of the most important Court decisions of the past 50 years.
The Court has affirmed President Obama’s bold approach to health care reform.
I’m proud of the members of the Supreme Court who put differences aside and did the right thing for our country. What they preserved is an effective, reasonable health care law that does some important things for Iowans including:
· Helping thousands of Iowans with pre-existing conditions get coverage after being denied it for years;
· 611,000 Iowans already have received common-sense preventative health services – including well-child visits, cancer screenings and immunizations – without co-pays;
· 18,012 young adults, up to the age of 26, will be allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy;
· 42,015 Iowa seniors saved an average of $1,384 on prescription durgs on Medicare;
· Thousands of Iowans no longer have lifetime dollar caps in health insurance policies;
And there is much more.
But we know this decision is far from the last word in the health care debate.
Suddenly, there are political concerns that somehow Obamacare will be the largest tax increase in history. The reality is the tax only kicks in for those who choose not to have health insurance, and our goal is to have no Iowan ever have to pay that tax.
The Medicaid provisions of the decision have less impact on Iowa because of a forward thinking program called IowaCare which allows childless adults to get health care up to 200 percent of the poverty level. We are ahead of the federal government. And I don’t believe we are going to move backward on that.
There apparently is an effort in the U.S. House to repeal the law entirely. I am confident that repeal will not get 60 votes in the Senate and that President Obama won’t sign it, so that bill is DOA.
Those who want to play out the politics of this issue are free to do so. I believe it is now more urgent than ever that state leaders step in and provide bipartisan direction to implement the Affordable Care Act. I am more interested in implementing Obamacare.
Make no mistake, there remains room for mischief in the implementation of the ACA. But in Iowa, our work on health care has been marked by cooperation, not sabotage, and I remain very confident we can work out a bipartisan implementation plan.
Two weeks ago, I called on Governor Branstad and legislative leaders to convene an Iowa health care “summit” to chart a path forward for Iowa and fully implement the ACA. Yesterday, I met with the Governor’s Chief of Staff and was encouraged by what I heard about the summit. I proposed that a non-partisan third parties host the event and invite the stakeholders.
My hope is to convene Iowa’s health care summit within a matter of weeks.
The summit is important because the health reform process is too important to be left to just the politicians, industry and the usual stakeholders. We need to hear what’s best for Iowans.
And when it comes to getting Iowans the health care they need in the highest-quality, most affordable way, there is no room for delay.
We must seize this opportunity to build on the bipartisan success of the past five years in health care reform and truly become “The Healthiest State.”
