Report on Health Care Lobby Day in Des Moines
by Caroline Vernon
contributions by Karen Metcalf

On February 7th, many health care advocates from across the state came together in association with Democracy For America, Democracy For Iowa and Iowa For Health Care for their first joint Health Care Lobby Day.

Among those in attendance from the Quad Cities were none other than yours truly, Caroline Vernon, Alta Price, Karen Metcalf, and Bev Strayhall. Although we are each connected to the larger groups mentioned above, we are also active members of Progressive Action for the Common Good Health Care Forum. Like Iowa For Health Care, our main goal is to promote quality, affordable health care for all. 

Although we did not address the larger goal of obtaining good coverage for everyone, the purpose of our visit to the Statehouse was to engage our legislators on three very important pieces of legislation:

Increase in the cigarette tax:

Research shows that increasing the tax by $1/pack would stop 4700 young people in Iowa from starting. This translates into better health and substantial savings in health care costs from tobacco-related illnesses.

We found broad bi-partisan support for this proposal, particularly if the revenue generated by the tax is allocated specifically to health care. While the Senate last year approved a cigarette tax hike, the effort has been blocked in the House because House Speaker Christopher Rants, (R) - Sioux City, says he won't allow debate.

Rants sponsored a political organization, Iowa Leadership Council, that received more than $60,000 from tobacco companies. The "Rants For Statehouse Committee" also received over $4,000 from big tobacco and yet Rants insists these generous contributions have nothing to do with the fact that he refuses to allow this proposal to come to the floor for debate! Yes, ladies and gentlemen,  the "culture of corruption" has come to Iowa! Evidently, Rants really expects folks to believe this nonsense!

During our early morning press conference, Sara Swisher of Iowa For Healthcare declared, "Speaker Rants needs to answer to the people who provide health care and he needs to answer to Iowans. He should kick the habit and kick it now instead of taking big bucks from tobacco." Sara was joined by the group mascot, Mr. Buttman, who was weilding a fistful of  "Tobacco Bucks for Speaker Christopher Rants".

ACTION: Click here to download your own "Tobacco Buck For Rants," make single-sided copies on lime green paper, cut them apart and distribute them at every legislative forum, townhall meeting and community event you attend!

Over a dozen Republican legislators have also encouraged Rants to allow debate on this issue, to no avail. It was stressed that Sioux City residents would hold the most weight with Rants, so if you are a SC resident or if you have friends or family who are, please encourage them to contact House Speaker Chris Rants, urging him to "do the right thing" by allowing debate on this very important issue:

E-mail: Christopher.Rants@legis.state.ia.us
Home Address: 2740 South Glass Street, Sioux City, IA, 51106
Home Telephone: 712-274-8874

According to Iowa For Healthcare, polls show that at least 70% of Iowans support a $1 increase of the tax. Governor Vilsack has proposed boosting the tax by 80 cents per pack.

Fair Share For Health Care Legislation:

Maryland recently passed a similar bill, by the same name, which passed over the veto of Governor Ehrlich. This legislation has been introduced to the Iowa legislature by Senator Joe Bolkcom and others in a bi-partisan effort to hold large corporations accountable to their employees and the communities in which they operate. It forces the very largest employers (about 5 companies in Iowa) to allocate a fixed percentage of their revenue for employee health care costs, either by providing them with health care coverage directly, or by paying directly to the State Medicaid budget, since many of these employees make so little that they, or their children, qualify for Medicaid.

According to an Iowa Department of Human Services 2004 report, the two largest employers in Iowa, HyVee and Walmart, each have hundreds of employees who meet this low-income criteria. HyVee, the largest employer, had 361 employees on Medicaid, while Walmart, the 2nd largest employer in the state, had over 800 employees on Medicaid. As you know, Medicaid funding has been threatend by huge budget cuts on the federal level which will affect the states ability to fund this program so it is imperative that we mandate large profitable corporations to pay their fair share for health care! 

Whistle-Blower Protection For Health Care Workers:

Many nurses and other health care workers were in attendance advocating for this key piece of legislation to insure that all health care workers are comfortable reporting unsafe practices without fear of being fired or punished in some way by their employer. Various personal accounts of such incidents were shared with legislators, citing examples of being ostracized or fired for speaking out. There seemed to be broad support for this legislation. Our hope is that this will pass this legislative session. ACTION: Please contact your legislators and urge them to support this key protection for our invaluable health care workers.

Quality Affordable Health Care for All -  by 2010:

PACG Health Care forum Leader, Karen Metcalf, reflected on the progress made that day, "It was a very productive day for those of us who went, not so much because we were able to change legislators' minds, but because we learned a lot about the political process and the exercise of political power in the state. Although we did not specifically deal with the macro goal of getting coverage for everyone, each of the three pieces of legislation, in it's own way, does address a micro issue and, if passed, would certainly be a step forward, rather than backward, as so much legislation seems to be these days."

Many grassroots organizations across the state are actively advocating for quality, affordable healthcare for all. The prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for the U.S. to implement universal health care by 2010. According to the January 14, 2004 report, 43,000,000 Americans are uninsured (a conservative estimate), and lack of health insurance causes 18,000 unnecessary deaths each year in the U.S. Eighty percent of the uninsured are members of working families; while a quarter of U.S. workers are not offered health insurance at all, and few Americans can afford to buy the expensive individual policies.

It is important that each of us continue to do whatever we can to address this issue of healthcare for all. Because we believe health care is a right, not a privilege, the PACG Health Care forum has championed the "Lend A Hand For Health Care" initiative, collecting 18,000 handprints to represent those people who die every year. We have already acquired handprints from Governor Tom Vilsack, Lt. Governor Sally Pederson, US Congressman Leonard Boswell, various state legislators, and our very own Chariman Howard Dean. Outreach to faith groups and other community organizations is under way in an effort to expedite and complete this project by year's end.  If you would like more information on how you can assist in this effort contact Karen Metcalf at karencadfael@aol.com or go to our website, www.qcprogressiveaction.org. Once we meet our goal of 18,000 handprints, our hope is to take them to the statehouses in Des Moines and Springfield and then to Washington DC to display them as close as possible to the Capitol Building! Can you manage to get a visual on that?!

I would like to thank everyone at Democracy For America, Democracy For Iowa, and Iowa For Health Care for sponsoring a great lobby day in Des Moines! Special thanks for all the hard work of Kirsten Running, Chris Bonfig, Sally Simpson and all the other dedicated staff at Iowa For Healthcare for helping to make this a first class event. And to Sara Swisher, kudos for her grace in leadership!