Medicaid helps low-wage Iowa families stay afloat

Erecting harsh bureaucratic barriers to care will increase hardship

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When state leaders launched Medicaid's Iowa Health and Wellness Plan a decade ago, they made it possible for thousands of low-income adults to see a doctor, get medications, and go to the hospital -- essential health care that helps them get to work and take care of their families.

An expected legislative proposal would reverse some of these gains by setting up onerous bureaucratic hurdles -- rigid work verification rules -- that many would struggle to comply with.

Low-income Iowa families are already struggling with high prices for food, gas and rent. Taking away their health coverage would be a harsh blow.

We all want to see people get into good jobs, but there's simply no evidence that ramping up the red tape they face to keep their health care will help. Instead, we can expect that such proposals will:

• Cut eligible people off their insurance

• Increase medical debt and financial hardship

• Strain local hospitals, especially in rural Iowa

• Ramp up administrative costs and threaten other health priorities

• Alarm the public

See the full two-page PDF.