What’s at Stake for Iowa
With a new president and Congress, the health care gains made throughout the last six years face their greatest threat yet.
We have been travelling around the state – hearing from everyday friends, neighbors, seniors, small business owners, doctors, advocates and others about what the ACA means to them. But that’s just the beginning. We need YOUR help to protect the gains we have made.
Please Sign our Petition and/or Share your Health Care Story!
Iowa Members of Congress: We ask you to consider the pain that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would cause your constituents. We believe that not a single person need lose insurance coverage, have their benefits cut, or have their costs increase as a result of the actions legislators take. We ask you to help us uphold the gains of the ACA. The health and lives of millions are at stake.
Let’s Fight Back!
Congress has voted more than 60 times to roll back the historic progress that has been made to expand health coverage to millions of people in this country and to improve coverage for those who already had it. Republican leaders are headed for a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These proposed changes will put the health—and lives—of countless Iowans at risk. Here’s what Iowa stands to lose if the new president and Congress move forward to upend our health care system:
Hundreds of thousands of Iowans stand to lose health coverage
Repeal will end Iowa’s Medicaid expansion and cause ripple effects across the state economy. The Medicaid expansion has extended health coverage to lower-income Iowans who hold down jobs that are the backbone of the state’s economy. Repeal will leave these hard-working Iowans out in the cold.
Iowa will lose millions in federal Medicaid funding. The impact of that lost federal Medicaid funding will have a ripple effect throughout the state economy, affecting hospitals, other health care providers, and businesses.
Iowans with private health insurance will be stripped of vital protections against discrimination. Iowans with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, and cancer could once again be denied affordable, comprehensive coverage that actually covers their health care needs.
Women in Iowa will once again be charged more for health coverage just for being a woman. Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), women in Iowa were charged as much as 43 percent more than men for the same coverage.10
Iowans will once again face a world where insurance plans routinely cap the most they will pay for someone’s health care in a year and in their lifetime, effectively cutting off coverage for the sickest individuals when they most need it.
Insurance companies will no longer be required to put Iowans’ premiums toward care, not profits. Insurers will no longer be held accountable for using people’s premium dollars on care and quality improvement or paying back the difference.
The Medicare donut hole will re-open. This will leave Iowa’s seniors and people with disabilities with a gap in prescription drug coverage and forced to pay thousands of dollars more in drug costs.
Millions of Iowans will lose guaranteed coverage of free preventive services, like recommended cancer screenings and vaccines.
Thank you for adding your voice!