Oz, Iowa Dems disagree on Medicaid

Lawmakers and advocates fire back after Oz visits UIHC

VANESSA MILLER

The Gazette

IOWA CITY — One day after Dr. Mehmet Oz — overlooking Kinnick Stadium from atop the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital — told reporters and UIHC administrators, “We didn’t cut Medicaid at all,” a group of advocates and Democratic lawmakers on Thursday cried “baloney.”

“That’s complete baloney,” Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, said during a press conference with fellow lawmakers, Common Good Iowa, Fairness for Iowa and Protect Our Care Iowa — a nonprofit committed to making “high-quality, affordable, and equitable healthcare a right and not a privilege.”

The Medicaid changes both sides referenced this week stemmed from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year — which the Congressional Budget Office has said will reduce federal spending on healthcare by more than $1 trillion and increase America’s uninsured by more than 10 million.

On Wednesday, Oz — while standing next to UIHC Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks — touted the government’s $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program and said any struggles hospitals are facing today existed before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Many states won’t really have much of an impact until ’28,” he said.

But Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, on Thursday disputed that — noting 700,000 Iowans rely on Medicaid — almost half of them children — for their health insurance.

“We’re talking about workers in low-paying jobs without benefits, people with disabilities, seniors in nursing care,” Discher said. “Those are by far the largest groups of folks covered by Medicaid. And they all depend on it so they can go to work, they can go to school and learn, they can live with dignity in their communities, they can live out their later years in safe nursing care.”

And those beneficiaries are going to feel the hit of cuts a lot sooner than 2028, she said.

“The pain of the big bill is about to get real,” Discher said. “In October, many lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and asylees who have fled incredible dangers in their homes, will lose their Medicaid. They will no longer be eligible.

“In December, Iowa will start imposing work-reporting requirements on adults covered under that expansion, which we call the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan. And then, in coming years, the feds are going to crack down on some of the financing tools that states like Iowa use to pay for Medicaid, intending for them then to cut services to reflect that.

“You know what that means. That means less healthcare for folks.”

‘CUTS TO CARE’

A new report from Protect Our Care — discussed in a virtual press conference with Iowa lawmakers Thursday — details damage the Medicaid cuts are expected to have on Iowa families, Iowa hospitals and the state budget.

“Iowa’s entire Republican federal delegation voted on the largest cut to Medicaid in history, and it is having a devastating impact on Iowans,” Petersen said. “They also voted to take away the tax credits for thousands of Iowans who relied on those dollars to help them be able to afford their health insurance cost. And we’re already seeing the ugly consequences of their vote across our state.”

Health insurance premiums are soaring, clinics are closing, healthcare workers are losing their jobs — despite a growing healthcare worker shortage — while more Iowans are finding themselves uninsured and racking up medical debt, according to the Democratic lawmakers on the call.

All that comes as Iowa faces back-to-back, billion-dollar budget deficits, compelling new “cost-containment” efforts.

“Cost containment is really just cuts to care — especially hitting hard Iowans with disabilities and children,” Petersen said, arguing these “problems are manufactured by Republicans in charge of healthcare policies.”

“Instead of making healthcare more accessible and less expensive for Iowans, they’re doing the opposite.”

The new report found 3 million Americans nationally already have lost Medicaid coverage and millions more will in the coming years — including seniors, children and veterans. With more than 15 million Americans at risk of losing coverage, nearly 900 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other critical care providers are either closing, cutting services or at risk of closing, according to the new report.

IOWA NUMBERS

Breaking down by state the projected nearly $1 trillion federal Medicaid funding cut over 10 years, the report found Iowa will lose $9 billion — about 17 percent of its baseline 10-year Medicaid funding, among the highest percentages in the nation. The projected increase in uninsured Iowans by 2034 is 68,000, according to the report.

When looking at the impact on children, seniors and those with disabilities, the report found Iowa has the second-highest share of seniors enrolled in Medicaid in the nation at 14 percent — behind only Pennsylvania’s 15 percent.

“That’s like punching someone in the face and telling them you gave them a facial,” Petersen said of the assertion from Oz, who heads the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“What they voted for was the largest cut to Medicaid in history, and Iowans are already feeling the impact.”

VanessaMiller can be reached at vanessa.miller@thegazette.com.

Denise Jamieson, vice president of medical affairs at University of Iowa Health Care, listens to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak at UIHC’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital on Wednesday in Iowa City.

AMIR PRELLBERG/THE GAZETTE

Discher

Petersen