States Moving Toward Comprehensive Health Care Reform
Iowa
Status of Reform Effort:
On May 19, 2009,
the Governor built on 2008 comprehensive health reform legislation by signing
legislation that expands coverage for children and pregnant women, creates an
insurance exchange, and establishes a health workforce initiative.
In January 2008, a legislative commission issued a report that provides recommendations for how to reach universal health care coverage. On May 13, 2008, Governor Chet Culver signed HF 2539, which calls for comprehensive health care reform. The legislation lays out a plan for covering every uninsured child in the state by 2011. It also sets the goal of universal health care coverage for all Iowa residents by 2013. The legislation includes the following components:
Expands Hawk-i (CHIP) eligibility to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, to be implemented in July 2009;
Prevents private insurers from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing health conditions;
Improves the electronic health information technology system, promotes medical homes, and focuses on prevention, wellness, and chronic care management.
On May 19,
2009, the Governor signed SF
389 which builds on HF 2539 by creating a plan for extending coverage to 12,000
uninsured children with family incomes below 300 percent of the federal poverty
level. The legislation creates the Iowa
Choice Insurance Exchange and lays out requirements for what must be included
in the exchange’s operational plan.Among
these requirements, the exchange, in collaboration with the Iowa Medicaid
Enterprise and the Hawk-I Board, must develop a comprehensive health coverage
plan for all children without coverage.The
Exchange must also design and implement a health coverage program, called Iowa
Choice, which will offer private health coverage at three benefit package
levels.The plan developed by the Exchange
must be submitted to the Insurance Commissioner and then sent to the
Legislature by February 15, 2010. The
legislation also does the following:
Expands coverage for pregnant women to 300 percent FPL, as of July 1, 2009;
Streamlines enrollment and retention in Medicaid and Hawk-I;
Improves child access to dental care through Hawk-I;
Creates an Office of Health Reform in the Department of Public Health;
Establishes a health care workforce initiative to increase the number of providers.*
