Obamacare lives. After hundreds of votes by the then-Republican U.S. House of Representatives; after a narrow win in the then-Republican U.S. Senate, courtesy of now-deceased Senator John McCain; after four years of failed promises by President Trump; and now, most recently, after a vote by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of Obamacare — the third overall, Obamacare remains the law of the land and appears to be now unhappily accepted by Republicans as the status quo. Continue reading
Category Archives: ACA
Health Reform and a Political Commercial
This is a proposed political ad for our upcoming election to be paid for by a proposed political action committee named Pre-Existing Conditions Political Action Committee (PEC PAC).
PEC PAC commercial — Take One. Continue reading
Health Reform and the Role of Private Insurance
As a family physician and health-care advocate, I have fought for universal health-care access for more than 25 years.
In 1997, I advocated for the proposed Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (HAWK-I) program by writing in an op-ed that a “child with a laceration on the arm goes to the school three days after the injury happened. The wound is held together with a bandage of rags and electrical tape. The child has no insurance.”
Health Reform and a Primer for Democratic Presidential Candidates in Iowa
What every presidential Democratic candidate — many of whom will be speaking at the Iowa State Fair this week — should know about Iowa health reform:
1. Iowa suffered greatly by having a Republican-dominated state government (governor, Senate, and House) during the aftermath of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). With a Republican governor and most recently a Republican Senate and House in Iowa, we had a miserable attempt at a Marketplace/Exchange; no support for our attempt at a health-care Co-Op (Co-Oportunity Health, which had 120,000 members in one year of operation); passage of association health plans, which allow for discrimination against persons with co-existing conditions; and, overall, an unbelievably negative atmosphere in general regarding anything that concerned the ACA.
Health Reform and Iowa’s Next Governor
(These are remarks I gave to an audience of 50 Iowans introducing Fred Hubbell, Iowa’s Democratic candidate for governor, at my home on Saturday, June 30. This is belatedly posted here because of technical difficulties with the blog site earlier in the year when these remarks were more timely.)
My wife and I welcome you to our home and are very happy you are here today to meet, greet, and support Fred.
Health Reform and “We the Middling People”
I have just read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, and was struck by Franklin’s “great rallying cry for the new American middle class,” according to the author, or, as Franklin in his pamphlet, Plain Truth, said, “We the middling class people. The tradesmen, shopkeepers, and farmers of the province and city!” I contrast this emphasis with the recent Iowa Democratic gubernatorial debate and the five candidates running in next Tuesday’s primary and separately this past Wednesday, when Governor Kim Reynolds signed Iowa’s new tax-reform law.
Health Reform and Primum Non Nocere Revisited
Several months ago in this space, I discussed my concerns about a Trump presidency regarding the Latin phrase “primum non nocere,” which means “first do no harm.” Now, at the end of the 2018 Iowa Legislative session, I revisit this phrase to discuss my concerns about the results that this Republican-dominated Legislature and the Republican governor have created or are creating.
Health Reform and $2,000 per Month Health Insurance with a $10,000 Deductible (which Is Only Going to Get Worse)
2017. The year health reform took it on the chin. The year the middle-class, individual health-insurance buyer was abused by President Donald Trump and the entire Republican Party.
In Iowa, where we almost had no insurers in the individual market, we were left with one for 2018, Medica. One is not a choice. Who knows whether we will have insurers in 2019.
Health Reform and Continuity of Care
In the chaos of health-care efforts both nationally and in Iowa, today I seek to go back to two basic beliefs: 1) the hope of future generations to learn from past generations’ mistakes and 2) the value of continuity of care for primary health care and, ultimately, health care in general.
The U.S. Senate is now debating a tax-cut bill that includes eliminating the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual mandate for health-care coverage — a basic tenet for true health-care reform — and, in Iowa, the for-profit, managed-care Medicaid fiasco now has one managed-care organization (MCO) leaving the state and another MCO not able to take new patients. These actions leave the state with only one MCO left to serve Medicaid patients. Given these realities, I shift gears by presenting to you a guest blogger.
She is a third-year medical student who recently spent a month with me in my clinic. She plans to be a pediatrician. I choose not to provide her name. Although she would allow it, I am not sure her medical school would.
Health Reform and Why Words Should Matter
Ah, words! Especially to writers, they are more precious than jewels, as essential as air, and powerful enough to create entire worlds. We chase them, massage or mince them, we roll them around in our mouths, savoring every delicious subtlety. Mostly, we love them.
~Tammy Letherer
Ms. Letherer wrote these words on a blog entry titled Why Words Matter (In and Out of the Locker Room), on October 16, 2016. In that post, she discussed her unhappiness with Donald Trump’s language regarding women.
In Iowa, former U.S. Representative Bruce Braley lost his Senate race with Joni Ernst in large part to an audiotape of his words to political contributors in Texas disparaging our senior senator, Chuck Grassley, describing him as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.”
This year’s health-care debate, centered on the Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has led to many statements by Republican leaders in Iowa that should come back to haunt them this Halloween season and for seasons to come, as Bruce Braley’s words haunted him.