Iowa for Health Care asks Health Care Voters to take closer look at Candidate Health Care Plans
Iowa for Health Care asks Health Care Voters to take closer look at Candidate Health Care Plans
Iowa for Health Care distributed its new Presidential Candidate Health Care Plan Comparison Thursday July 31, at Sen. Obama’s town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids. The organization asked voters to take a closer look at the candidates’ health care plans.
Health Care is not an easy issue to understand. The candidates have proposed severely different plans to reduce cost, increase access, and create more choices for consumers. So, we’ve armed Health Care Voters with the tools they need to choose the candidate with the best plan to repair our nation’s broken health care system.
“The cost of insurance premiums increased by 87 percent from 2000 to 2006, we must act now or the problem will only get worse. Before Iowans go out to the polls in November, they need to know which candidate has the best health care plan. We’re asking all Iowan’s to take a look at our new Presidential Candidate Health Care Plan Comparison piece, and decide for themselves,” says Iowa for Health Care Director Kirsten Running-Marquardt.
Iowa for Health Care celebrates health care progress with Elected Officials, warns that McCain's plan could undermine state's success
With portions of the Iowa Health Care Reform Act taking effect on July 1st, Iowa for Health Care joined with the Lieutenant Governor, Sen. Jack Hatch, and Rep. Ro Foege to celebrate the progress being made in Iowa toward improving access to quality health care -- while also calling for national solutions to the crisis.
Beginning the first of July, legislation passed here in Iowa makes it harder for insurance companies to exclude people with pre-existing conditions and allows young adults to be covered by their parents’ plans until age 25. Eventually, the act will provide coverage for the state’s 50,000 uninsured children.
Among those applauding the new measures is Sarah Posekany, a health care voter from Cedar Falls. “At 20, after several surgeries led me to take a semester off school, I was dropped from my parents' insurance plan. This led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and eventual bankruptcy,” she said. “I'm now ineligible for student loans and can't go back to school. This necessary new health care bill will give young adults a cushion of time after high school so that what happened to me never has to happen in this state again.”
Iowa for Health Care is working to make health care a top issue in federal, state and local elections. There is no time to waste. Health care costs are skyrocketing, and more than 47 million Americans have no coverage at all – including over 240,000 in the state of Iowa.
Yet, “even as we celebrate success here in Iowa, presidential candidate John McCain has proposed a national health care plan that would allow insurance companies to ignore these patient protections and state laws,” said Kirsten Running-Marquardt, director of Iowa for Health Care. “It would make it harder for Americans to get coverage and would do nothing to control rising costs, while delivering another taxpayer-financed gift to insurance industry profits.”
The event was sponsored by “The Road to American Health Care,” a national bus tour aimed at mobilizing voters around comprehensive health care reform. The bus tour is being organized by SEIU, the largest union of health care workers in North America, as part of a sweeping campaign to elect a new President and Congress committed to fixing health care -- and then make sure those newly elected leaders immediately pass comprehensive legislation that makes quality health care affordable for everyone.
With portions of the Iowa Health Care Reform Act taking effect on July 1st, Iowa for Health Care joined with the Lieutenant Governor, Sen. Jack Hatch, and Rep. Ro Foege to celebrate the progress being made in Iowa toward improving access to quality health care -- while also calling for national solutions to the crisis.
Beginning the first of July, legislation passed here in Iowa makes it harder for insurance companies to exclude people with pre-existing conditions and allows young adults to be covered by their parents’ plans until age 25. Eventually, the act will provide coverage for the state’s 50,000 uninsured children.
Among those applauding the new measures is Sarah Posekany, a health care voter from Cedar Falls. “At 20, after several surgeries led me to take a semester off school, I was dropped from my parents' insurance plan. This led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and eventual bankruptcy,” she said. “I'm now ineligible for student loans and can't go back to school. This necessary new health care bill will give young adults a cushion of time after high school so that what happened to me never has to happen in this state again.”
Iowa for Health Care is working to make health care a top issue in federal, state and local elections. There is no time to waste. Health care costs are skyrocketing, and more than 47 million Americans have no coverage at all – including over 240,000 in the state of Iowa.
Yet, “even as we celebrate success here in Iowa, presidential candidate John McCain has proposed a national health care plan that would allow insurance companies to ignore these patient protections and state laws,” said Kirsten Running-Marquardt, director of Iowa for Health Care. “It would make it harder for Americans to get coverage and would do nothing to control rising costs, while delivering another taxpayer-financed gift to insurance industry profits.”
The event was sponsored by “The Road to American Health Care,” a national bus tour aimed at mobilizing voters around comprehensive health care reform. The bus tour is being organized by SEIU, the largest union of health care workers in North America, as part of a sweeping campaign to elect a new President and Congress committed to fixing health care -- and then make sure those newly elected leaders immediately pass comprehensive legislation that makes quality health care affordable for everyone.
Governor Culver signs two monumental health care bills
Governor Culver recently signed two pieces of legislation that will bring much needed changes to the state of our health care system. The first bill puts Iowa on a path to universal health care coverage for the state’s 50,000 uninsured children. Also, HF 2539 will improve out state’s overall health care by offering more options for adults to purchase coverage, encouraging the use of electronic medical records, focusing on chronic disease prevention, and allowing young adults to stay on their family’s health insurance plan until they are 25.
The second bill, SF 2425, earmarks this year’s Medicaid provider reimbursement increase to boost nurse wages across the state. This one-percent Medicaid provider reimbursement increase could mean $5.1 million for Iowa’s RNs, translating to hundreds of dollars per nurse.
Beginning to raise nurse wages is a needed step toward solving the state’s drastic nurse shortage. At the rate we are going, Iowa is set to have a shortfall of 9,100 RNs by 2020, leaving a 27 percent shortage. Passing this bill proves that Iowa is ready to take on the issue that hits our nurses the hardest: wages. Iowa’s nurses are the lowest wage earners of any state in the country, ranking 52nd.
Iowa for Health Care and SEIU are very proud to see these bills become law. Over the past couple years the organizations have worked hard to develop and support the health care bill at the Capitol. Iowa for Health Care and SEIU’s Sarah Swisher served proudly on the Governor’s Legislative Commission on Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses and Families that developed ideas for the health care bill. Swisher also led the charge in bringing the issue of low nurse wages to the attention of the Governor’s Nursing Taskforce, and to our state legislators.
Iowa for Health Care speaks out against John McCain's Health Care Proposal
Fat Cat supporting McCainOn the first of May, Iowa for Health Care and its Health Care Voters spoke out at Senator John McCain's health care event in Des Moines to inform the general public and supporters of McCain about how wrong the Senator is on the issue.
Also, see our piece on RealClearPolitics.com by clicking here.
Watch the video below from our press conference outside Senator McCain's health care event in Des Moines.
Cover the Uninsured Week
Cover the Uninsured Week is the nation's largest mobilization on behalf of America's 47 million uninsured. The week has brought together business owners, union members, educators, students, patients, hospital staff, physicians, nurses, faith leaders and their congregants, and many others to speak out on behalf of the uninsured and demand that our national leaders make the issue of the uninsured their top priority.
Iowa for Health Care teamed up with the Quad Cities Interfaith on April 30th for a Prayer Vigil for the Uninsured of Iowa and Illinois. This event was held at Broadway Presbyterian Church, in Rock Island, IL.
Cover the Uninsured Week is the nation's largest mobilization on behalf of America's 47 million uninsured. The week has brought together business owners, union members, educators, students, patients, hospital staff, physicians, nurses, faith leaders and their congregants, and many others to speak out on behalf of the uninsured and demand that our national leaders make the issue of the uninsured their top priority.Iowa for Health Care Thanks Sen. Chuck Grassley
Iowa for Health Care met with Sen. Chuck Grassley in Marion, Eldridge, and Tipton during his campaign visits to the respective areas. On behalf of our 32,000 Health Care Voters, Iowa for Health Care activists thanked Grassley for his leadership on positive health care reform, and asked him to continue to fight for the issue.
"Sen. Grassley took the moral stance on the SCHIP issue, not only did he vote for the bill's greatest expansion, he openly supported it. He stood up for what was right, and that means a lot to the people of Iowa," said Health Care Voter Mary Schlichte.
In 2007, the Senator voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover nearly four million more uninsured children across the country and thousands here in Iowa. This year, the Senator has co-sponsored a bill that would improve nursing home care by increasing transparency and accountability and improving enforcement called the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act (S2641).
Cong. Tom Latham visits with Health Care Voters to discuss Health Care Issues
Congressman Tom Latham from Iowa's 4th Congressional District met with Health Care Voters in Iowa City to discuss important health care issues. Cong. Latham has been traveling across the state holding community forums with groups of nurses to discuss the growing nursing shortage that is quickly becoming a crisis in this state. "We'll have an extremely serious problem when the baby boomers get in the nursing homes. This could decimate quality health care if this isn't addressed soon," Latham told the Associated Press about the issue.
According to the Iowa Department of Public Health we currently have 8 percent fewer nurses working in Iowa than we need, and that gap will only increase unless solutions are brought to the table. And although this is a problem that is duplicated in states across the country, Iowa faces a unique obstacle in filling this void because we pay our nurses lower than any other state in the U.S.
Quad City Interfaith and Iowa for Health Care plan for Health Care action in the Quad Cities
Iowa for Health has been meeting with the Quad City Interfaith (a public advocacy organization of over 30 Quad City churches from every faith) over the past weeks to plan ways to get the area's many congregations involved and informed about the state of health care in this country.
In working with this group, Iowa for Health Care hopes to get the Quad City's community better educated on what our nation's health care crisis means to them, and what they can do about it.
See us here in the Quad City Times Newspaper
Fed says Health Care Spending to Increase
Residents of the U.S. vote with many issues in mind, but the issues that historically take precedence are those that affect the pocketbook. This is evident within the issue of health care reform, as health care costs continue to increase by leaps and bounds ever year, the cry for comprehensive reform gets louder and louder.
The Federal Government announced in early March that at the rate we are going, the United States will be spending over $4 trillion a year on health care by 2017. That would mean one out of every five dollars that is spent in this country would be going toward health care.
Iowa for Health Care and its 32,000 Health Care Voters have been pushing for change in our health care system since 2002, saying that "the longer we wait, the worse it is going to get." Well, as you can see, we won't be able to afford to wait much longer.
2008 will be a defining year for health care reform, both in Iowa, and across the country. Not only are we facing progressive reform from our Statehouse that would take crucial steps toward covering Iowa's kids and eventually covering all Iowans, but we will be faced with the opportunity to elect a health care friendly President who can tackle this crisis from the Federal level. Please stay with us in this fight, and let's reverse this crisis.Iowa for Health Care held its 5th Annual Lobby Day on February 14th
- This Valentine's Day, Health Care Voters will be pushing legislators to support health care reform that will cover all Iowans, starting with children -
Lt. Governor Patty Judge met with Iowa for Health Care for a Valentine's Day Press Conference to discuss our hopes for health care reform in 2008 and the years to come. Also, she received Iowa for Health Care’s “Health Care Activist of the Year” Award.
The Iowa Legislature has already begun what will prove to be a very exciting year for health care reform in the state. There are approximately 270,000 Iowans, 45,000 of whom are children, but we have an opportunity to change that this session
On Valentine's Day we urged Iowa’s State Senators and Representatives to support the Governor’s positive health care agenda with our 5th Annual Iowa for Health Care Lobby Day. This agenda focuses on covering Iowa’s uninsured children, which will lay the groundwork for universal coverage throughout the state.
Beyond this necessary health care reform, Iowa for Health Care also lobbied for nurse-friendly legislation.
Currently, many nurses in Iowa have no protection from employer retaliation when they speak out against actions or conditions in the workplace that are unsafe or illegal. Nurses should not be punished for advocating in the best interest of their patients, this is why we pushed for the Whistleblower Protection Bill HF 861 that have been introduced by Rep. Mary Mascher.
Another major issue facing this state is nurse wages, where we currently rank 50th in the nation. Ranking last in nurse pay is unacceptable and action much be taken immediately to bring these valued bedside workers up to a competitive average wage.
Thousands of Iowa Health Care Voters Turn Out in Nearly Every Precinct to Make Health Care Top Priority on Caucus Night
-Iowa’s Largest Issue-Based Caucus Campaign Passes Hundreds of Health Care for All Resolutions Across State-
Iowa’s 32,000 health care voters turned out in nearly every precinct in the state tonight to ensure friends and neighbors caucused for candidates who will make health care a top priority and passed hundreds of health care for all resolutions.
“Health care voters in Iowa were the first to prove tonight what the polls have been saying all along this election—Americans want to fix our health care crisis,” said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. “But tonight is just the beginning. Health care voters in all of the early states will head to the polls in the coming weeks to make health care their top priority and bring us closer to electing a President who will guarantee access to health care for every man, woman, and child.”
Rural Health Tour
|
As this all important political state gears up for the approaching caucus, the issue of health care reform is being discussed at nearly every dinner table, and by every candidate. The skyrocketing costs of our nation's broken health care system affect everyone from employers to employees. But there is one group of people who is rarely mentioned in this discussion and whose product we greatly depend on, and that is the Iowa farmer. To shed light on the concerns of these Iowans, the Access Project will soon be releasing a groundbreaking new report that details how family farmers and ranchers in Iowa face serious financial and health access problems. These skyrocketing health care costs are eroding the economic landscape of rural America. Even solidly middle class farmers and ranchers are feeling the pinch of rising insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses. |
Tour Stops
|
If we are going to give Iowa famers a chance, we must elect a president with a plan to make health insurance affordable for every man, woman and child in this country. To help caucus-goers with this decision, Iowa for Health Care will be presenting its Presidential Candidate Side-by-Side and asking Iowans to caucus for whomever they believe is the best candidate to provide health care reform.
Read more.
Download your copy of the comparison. (pdf)
Sign up to stay informed and become a Health Care Voter.
Bettendorf Caucus Coffee
Throughout this political season, health care reform has been a top issue. Whether it's a personal experience, a family experience, or that of a friend, everyone has been affected by our nation's broken health care system; but if you live in Iowa, you can DO something about it. Iowa for Health Care is preparing to move the issue of health care reform forward at the caucus.
Last week, with the help of Bev Strayhall and Karen Metcalf, our Scott County Coordinators, we held a Caucus Training at the Bettendorf Public Library. There are three more opportunities to participate in Caucus Trainings. On December 16th we will be holding a Latino Caucus Training in Spanish and English in Des Moines; on December 17th we will be holding a Caucus Training in Ames; and on December 18th we will be holding a Caucus Training in Iowa City.
Learn more about caucus trainings
Iowa for Health Care County Coordinators
Iowa for Health Care is recruiting County Coordinators to head the organization's caucus activities in that County. These Health Care Voters are volunteering their time to ensure that voters in their community turn out on January 3rd to caucus for health care reform. They will also work with other Health Care Voters in precincts throughout the county to push the organization's "Resolution on Health Care for All" through their precinct and on to the County Convention.
Take our "Resolution on Health Care for All" (pdf) to your precinct on caucus night.