40+ groups tell Iowa's Congressional delegation: Don't cut Medicaid and SNAP

Organizations from all across the state sent a letter to members of Iowa's congressional delegation asking them oppose a Republican plan to make large cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to offset the costs of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. They reminded Iowa's Members of Congress of the important role the programs play in helping hundreds of thousands of Iowans get the health care they need and put food on the table. 

Read the text below or view the letter in PDF format here. 

 

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February 25, 2025

Dear Members:

We, the undersigned Iowa organizations, strive to assure that our neighbors can afford to see a doctor and put food on the table, even when their individual financial circumstances take a turn for the worse. Our goals mirror those of the vast majority of Iowans, who, regardless of their political leanings, believe in a government that works and supports Iowans in building the lives we want for ourselves and our families.

We ask that you work with your colleagues and leaders to ensure Congress does not pass fiscally risky budget legislation that would hurt so many of your constituents.

Medicaid, SNAP and other nutrition programs are high on the list of essential supports coming under attack in the 119th Congress. News is breaking every day about proposals to make deep cuts to these programs, coupled with major tax breaks that would mostly benefit corporations and upper-income households.

The reality is most Iowans cannot afford to pay more for food and health care. Household budgets are stretched thin. Cutting Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would increase families’ costs — and strain the local institutions Iowans rely on, like hospitals, nursing homes, food pantries and grocery stores.

Medicaid concerns

Medicaid is the backbone of our state’s health care system, covering 700,000 Iowans, including nearly 1 in 3 children, more than 1 in 3 people with disabilities and half of nursing home residents. Proposals in play would:

• Keep Iowans from getting health care they need. Proposals for “per capita caps” would cause large structural cuts in Medicaid by shrinking federal funding over time. These cuts would in turn require Iowa’s Medicaid program to cut services, cut enrollment or reduce already low reimbursement to health providers. These would place serious financial strain on Iowa hospitals and nursing homes, particularly in rural areas, where larger shares of people rely on Medicaid for health insurance.[1]

• Create administrative waste and barriers to care. We all agree on helping people get into decent jobs, but proposals to cut off their health insurance if they can’t meet rigid work reporting requirements won’t further this goal. In fact, evidence shows that most adults enrolled in Medicaid are already working — in low-wage jobs without benefits. Most who are not working face serious health challenges or are caregiving for loved ones.[2] Like many Iowans with low incomes, people on Medicaid are more likely to move frequently, have unreliable internet access, inflexible work hours and face other barriers that make managing complex verification requirements especially difficult.[3]

  • In Georgia, where the state has expanded coverage to some low-income adults and required them to report work activity, 90% of spending has gone to hiring corporate consultants and creating complex reporting systems — and only a few thousand people have successfully enrolled.[4]

  • When Arkansas implemented similar requirements in 2018, over 18,000 eligible people lost coverage in just seven months because they couldn’t clear required bureaucratic hurdles, and the state saw no increase in employment.[5]

• Put Iowa on the hook for more Medicaid costs. Among proposals to shift costs to states is one to slash the share of federal funding for Medicaid expansion, which launched in Iowa a decade ago under Gov. Terry Branstad. This would force Iowa to drastically increase its Medicaid budget or — more likely given state revenue projections — entirely drop the expansion population, now consisting of about 180,000 low-income Iowan adults. Shifting Medicaid costs to the state would not only squeeze health care; it would likely have cascading impacts on other parts of the state budget, including schools, courts and public safety.

SNAP and other nutrition program concerns

SNAP is also critical to Iowans’ well-being, helping nearly 260,000 Iowans, 8% of the state population, afford groceries. Nearly two-thirds of SNAP enrollees live in families with children, and more than one-third in families with older adults or disabled members. Emerging proposals would:

• Make it more difficult for Iowa families to get healthy food. A proposal to undo a permanent increase to the Thrifty Food Plan, the basic nutritious diet that is the basis for calculating SNAP benefits, would cut the average SNAP household in our state by $70 a month.[6] According to a recent study commissioned by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, low-income Iowans value fruits, vegetables and protein, and would like to include more of these items in their diets but already struggle to afford them.[7]

• Kick about 25,000 Iowans off SNAP entirely.[8] Some proposals call for the end of broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE), which allows states to extend SNAP benefits to households earning above the traditional income limit — in Iowa’s case those earning 131 to 160% of the federal poverty level. BBCE lessens what is otherwise a drastic benefits cliff, allowing working families to continue receiving some SNAP benefits as their incomes grow modestly. This state policy was codified by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023.[9]

• Further strain Iowa grocery stores, food banks and food pantries. Cutting SNAP would place additional demand on emergency food providers, who continue to face record-breaking numbers of Iowans turning to them for assistance. It would also take critical income away from grocery stores at risk of closing their doors. Just undoing recent improvements to the Thrifty Food Plan would lead to a loss of nearly $15 million in economic activity in Iowa every single month,[10] squeezing already tight grocery profit margins and undermining efforts by Republican state lawmakers to stabilize small, independent stores in high-need, low-access areas.[11]

• Expand SNAP’s harsh work-reporting requirement to groups that can least afford more financial strain, including older adults up to age 65, people living in areas with insufficient jobs, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, parents of school-age children and youth who have aged out of foster care.

• Eliminate free school meals for an estimated 25,000 Iowa children by making it harder for schools to qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).[12]

Iowans want an economy that makes it possible for folks to afford essential services like food and health care. We ask that you actively oppose these potential cuts that would profoundly harm our families and communities.

Sincerely,

Cedar Valley’s Promise, Waterloo
CommUnity Crisis Services, Iowa City
Coralville Community Food Pantry
Corridor Community Action Network, Iowa City (serving Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Tiffin, North Liberty and Marion)
Des Moines Area Religious Council
Dream City, Iowa City
Families Forward, Des Moines
Family Crisis Center, Ottumwa
Family Resources, Inc., Davenport
Firefly, Council Bluffs
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Coralville
Girls Inc. of Sioux City
Hand in Hand, Bettendorf
League of Women Voters Metropolitan Des Moines
North Liberty Community Pantry
Primary Health Care, Inc., Des Moines
Social Action Office, Diocese of Davenport
South Central Iowa Community Action Program, Chariton
Southeast Linn Community Center, Lisbon
Table to Table Food Distribution Network, Iowa City
Tanager, Cedar Rapids
United Way of Central Iowa, Des Moines
United Way of East Central Iowa, Cedar Rapids (serving Linn, Benton, Iowa, Jones and Cedar counties)
West Central Community Action, Harlan
YPN, Cedar Rapids
YWCA Clinton

Statewide organizations

Common Good Iowa
Disability Rights Iowa 
Easterseals Iowa
EyesOpenIowa
Iowa ACEs 360
Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children 
Iowa CareGivers
Iowa Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Iowa Citizen Action Network
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO
Iowa Healthy School Meals for All Coalition
Iowa Hunger Coalition
Iowa State Education Association 
NAMI Iowa
Planned Parenthood North Central States
Progress Iowa
Project Iowa