Last week the Iowa Senate passed the Health Care Protection Act.  It was voted primarily along party lines but there were three exceptions, including Republican Senator Jake Chapman of Adel who explains the bill.

“Last year the governor, in an effort to reduce the cost of Medicaid, used executive action to change the way we operate our Medicaid system.  Previously, Medicaid was administered through the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise, which is a state entity.  What he put into action was that our Medicaid system would be run by three private companies and those companies would have incentives to reduce costs and increase patient outcomes.”

The Health Care Protection Act would reverse Governor Branstad’s executive action.  Chapman says he was in favor or the primarily symbolic and political bill as a way to publically voice his concerns.

“We have a legisiatlve responsibility to be involved when you’re dealing with $4.5 billion and I was disappointed that the governor took executive action on it.  I certainly believe that we should have been given the opportunity to meet and have hearings and hear from constituents and hear from health care providers on how this will impact them but we weren’t ever given that opportunity.

The bill is expected to be dead on arrival when it gets to the Republican controlled House and even if it does pass there, it will surely be vetoed by Governor Terry Branstad.

Chapman will tell us more about what’s happening at the capitol on today’s Let’s Talk Dallas County.