Iowa Senate Democrats

Fighting for a Better Deal for Iowans.

  • Rural Iowa’s Maternal Health Crisis: A Doctor’s Perspective

    By Senate Intern Kylie Spies, University of Iowa MSW student

    Women in Henry County soon will have to travel an hour to Iowa City or Ottumwa to give birth. In labor and delivery, every minute can be critical. Sarah Ledger of Mount Pleasant, a physician with Henry County Health Center, talks with State Sen. Rich Taylor about the consequences of closing obstetrics units in rural Iowa.

    Rural Iowa hospitals are struggling to keep their doors open, and family practice doctors are on the front lines. Dr. Sarah Ledger, D.O., visited the State Capitol to tell legislators about the challenges Iowa families and doctors are facing.

    Dr. Ledger provides prenatal care to southeast Iowa women at Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant. HCHC will close the doors to its maternity unit in June, leaving another Iowa community without a safe place to have a baby.

    Henry County Health Center is a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the United States. Critical Access Hospitals are small rural hospitals at least 35 miles from another facility. They have 25 beds or fewer, and must offer 24/7 emergency services. In rural Iowa, these hospitals may be a matter of life and death in a crisis.

    Dr. Ledger says that because of the way Medicaid providers pay hospitals for maternity services, they are sometimes forced to close their labor and delivery units to keep the rest of the hospital afloat. It takes a lot of staff and hospital resources to be ready to deliver a baby at any time. If Medicaid payments don’t cover the costs or aren’t made quickly, rural OB units suffer.

    Critical Access Hospitals are supposed to receive higher rates of payment for their services because they are so vital to the community. But profit-driven private Medicaid providers have squeezed hospital budgets so tightly that they can no longer serve Iowans.

    “You abandon OB to keep your hospital open,” says Dr. Ledger. “We’re running into the same thing with our EMS services. We run into the same thing with some of our inpatient care units. You have to cut back on the services that you provide to keep your hospital open. And we’re seeing hospitals that are still closing.”

    Dr. Ledger says women are at higher risk of health problems like high blood pressure and premature births than they were 20 years ago. She sees patients living with violence and hunger, and many without a vehicle for traveling to appointments.

    Good prenatal care is crucial for the health of moms and babies. Regular appointments during pregnancy allow doctors and midwives to monitor patient health, educate moms, and prepare them for labor and newborn care. Without access to prenatal care, Iowa women and their babies face serious health risks.

    “These women come in and we have no idea what the potential complications are going to be. It increases the cost of health care overall because we’re not prepared. We haven’t taught these moms how to take care of their babies. We haven’t taught these moms how to take care of their bodies. You see more complications with that.”

    Women in Henry County soon will have to travel an hour to Iowa City or Ottumwa to give birth. In labor and delivery, every minute can be critical.

    “It is much safer to deliver these babies in a stable OB unit with a trained OB clinician, rather than an ER, in the back of an ambulance, or in a personal vehicle on the side of the road,” says Dr. Ledger.

     The shortage of maternity units in rural Iowa puts moms and babies at risk.

    Iowa ranks 50th out of the 50 states in the number of OB-GYNs per capita. Two-thirds of Iowa counties don’t have a single OB. Combined with the 34 closures of rural Iowa maternity units since 2000, Iowa has a serious care crisis. Dr. Ledger is asking the Legislature to fix Iowa’s Medicaid mess to protect rural hospitals.

    “We need more support with our Critical Access Hospitals. We need more money, unfortunately we need higher reimbursement,” she says.

    “We pay a lot of money to these private MCOs, and we are getting less and less.”

    Sources

    www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Health-Care-for-Underserved-Women/Health-Disparities-in-Rural-Women?IsMobileSet=false

    www.hchc.org/

    www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/critical-access-hospitals

    www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=52284a7453eb46b79149c1571d2d5e1b

  • Senate Republicans vote to take away women’s rights

    TRANSCRIPT:

    Ladies and Gentleman of the Senate, on the opening day of the Legislative Session, I said,

    “Iowans shouldn’t have to worry that their human and civil rights are on the line when the Legislature is in session.”

    But here we are…

    Today, Senate Republicans, under the leadership of Senator Schneider and Senator Whitver, are pushing a Constitutional Amendment designed to strip away the freedom of Iowa women, girls and their families.

    President Schneider and Leader Whitver – this debate calendar for today is one for the history books – one you will both be remembered for.

    First, you celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote.

    Then, on the same debate calendar, the only other piece of legislation you put forth is a Constitutional Amendment to strip women and girls of their basic human rights.

    You’ve chosen today to push an extreme agenda with the ultimate goal of an all-out abortion ban in Iowa –with no exceptions granted under any circumstances, instead of focusing on real problems facing young Iowa families in our state.

    Iowa women and girls need MORE access to safe health care close to home, NOT LESS.

    But that doesn’t seem to faze you.

    Never mind that Iowa is facing a maternal health crisis facing our state.

    Never mind that Iowa’s maternal mortality rate has more than doubled in the past three years.

    Never mind that 66 Iowa counties don’t even have a single OB/GYN.

    Livestock in our state has better access to doctors than Iowa women and girls, but I guess that doesn’t matter to you.

    Never mind that Iowans are losing labor & delivery departments and safe places to go for decent reproductive health care at a dangerous and deadly pace.
    ¬
    Iowa families represented by Senator Sinclair have lost three labor & delivery departments in Chariton, Knoxville and Leon.

    The families Senator Miller-Meeks represents have lost three labor & delivery departments in Bloomfield, Keosauqua, and Fairfield.

    Moms-to-be in Senator Rozenboom’s district lost their labor & delivery department in Centerville.

    Young families who are represented by Senator Segebart lost access to three labor & delivery departments in Audubon, Manning, and Sac City.

    Senator Waylon Brown – young families in your district had already lost labor & delivery services in Osage. Now you can add New Hampton to the list of places that won’t serve moms-to-be in your district anymore.

    Moms-to-be represented by Senator Johnson no longer have a labor & delivery department to deliver their babies in Oelwein and Independence.

    Senator Johnson was assigned the Healthy Moms and Babies Act to help address the maternal health crisis facing Iowa. But Senator Johnson hasn’t scheduled a subcommittee on the bill yet.

    Senator Edler: you promised the families in your district more access to health care. But Marshalltown because the Iowa community to lose a Level 2 labor and delivery department.

    Iowa parents-to-be that Senator Costello represents no longer have labor & delivery departments in Clarinda and Hamburg.

    Families Senator Sweeney represents lost labor & delivery departments in Iowa Falls and Eldora.

    Families Senator Whiting represents lost labor & delivery departments in Sibley and Rock Rapids.

    Parents-to-be and families living in Anamosa, Corning, Dyersville, Estherville, Guttenberg, Hampton, Humboldt, Ida Grove, Jefferson, Keokuk, Maquoketa, Washington, Webster City – all lost labor and delivery departments.

    Mount Pleasant is soon to shutter its labor and delivery program. And NONE of these hospitals that closed their labor and delivery departments are required to make sure other communities can take on the additional patient load, or that women have safe transportation to get to distant hospitals.

    So, even if your senate district hasn’t lost a labor and delivery department, your constituents health care is compromised as well. Access to a labor and delivery room matters.

    And the problem is getting worse.

    We know we’re likely to see an additional 10 labor & deliveries close down in the near future. A significant number of OB/gyns and family practitioners are planning to retire soon. And, we are starting to lose family practice residency programs in the state.

    These, my friends are real issues.

    BUT instead of making Iowa a safer place to have a baby, or help women get health care to regulate problematic periods, and address period health care issues that impact their ability to go to school and work, or improving access to family planning services so parents can choose when to have kids, and safely space their pregnancies, or choose not to have kids.

    Instead government is intruding on their lives.

    You have chosen to take away freedoms from Iowans.

    Instead of dealing with real problems that can truly be life or death problems for women and girls in our state, you have chosen to ram your power into women’s bodies once again.

    Wasn’t it enough, when you banned thousands of Iowa women from getting their reproductive health care from Planned Parenthood, Unity Point and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics…while you still enjoyed your taxpayer funded health insurance that allowed you, your spouses and your kids to access those providers and even get the same services you denied to the women you represent?

    Women are getting tired of you making your political statements with our uteruses.

    It’s time to quit punching women and girls in the uterus with your policies, and pretending it’s for our own good.

    This Constitutional Amendment steals the rights away from Iowa women and girls by taking away our ability to make personal decisions about what is best for our bodies, our future, our families, and our pregnancies.

    I can’t think of a single body part that is regulated more than the UTERUS.

    Not a big toe.

    Not eyes.

    Not even the penis, which is responsible for 99% of all rapes and 100% of all unintended pregnancies in our country, according to facts and science.

    To my Senate Republican colleagues – it is time for you to quit treating Iowa women and girls as second-class citizens whose rights and opportunities are inferior to your own.

    I don’t like to be mansplained on what human rights are.

    This constitutional amendment is written with the sole purpose of banning access to safe abortion care in Iowa.

    Don’t let the misleading language in this amendment confuse you.

    This amendment is not designed to protect women.

    The intent of this constitutional amendment, and the politicians behind it, is to make sure Iowa can ban abortion without exception.

    When you take away access to safe, legal abortion care, and maternal health care, you do not protect women and girls – you put their lives at risk.

    That’s why the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose efforts to ban abortion.

    Iowans – not politicians – should be in charge of our own personal medical decisions.

    Make no mistake about it – this Constitutional Amendment is part of an extreme abortion ban agenda pushed by Republican politicians here in Iowa and across the country – designed to do one thing. End access to safe abortion care, no matter what the cost to the lives of women, girls and families living in our country.

    President Schneider, you chose to use the power of the Senate Presidency to have the Iowa Senate celebrate women’s right to vote today. And then in the very same day, you allowed a debate on an ultra-extreme Constitutional Amendment that strips women and girls of their basic human rights.

    Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think!

    President Schneider, I am glad you don’t have the power to take away women’s RIGHT TO VOTE that our grandmas and great grandmas fought for more than 100 years ago because I know WOMEN intend to use that right.

    I urge a no vote.

  • Working together, we can help kids in need

    By State Sen. Nate Boulton, Des Moines (Senate District 16)

    Over the past year, I have had the chance to learn about a serious and heartbreaking illness that affects children who suffer from complications associated with strep infections. While most of us would not panic to hear our child has a diagnosis as common as strep throat, the unfortunate reality is that for some kids, that infection leads to a much more serious condition.

    PANDAS/PANS refers to several neuro-psychiatric conditions that can result from a simple streptococcal infection. Children affected suffer from a variety of problems, some as simple as headaches. Others, however, may become emotionally unstable and even suicidal. The National Institute of Mental Health Treatment describes the symptoms as usually dramatic, come on suddenly, and can include motor or vocal tics, obsessions and compulsions. Otherwise happy and healthy children can get a strep infection that one day causes a “trap door” to be triggered.

    While the condition alone is scary, parents face another frightening reality: treatment can be expensive and some health insurance companies refuse to cover it. To help ease the burden on these families facing a tough road ahead, I drafted legislation that requires coverage for treatment related to a PANDAS/PANS diagnosis.

    I was proud to see that as I spoke with other legislators about the issue, I was joined by Senators Tom Greene of Burlington (R), Liz Mathis of Hiawatha (D) and Mark Segebart of Vail (R) who signed on to co-sponsor the bill. We are making this a bipartisan effort to help families in need. SF 2084 has now been assigned to the Senate Human Resources Committee and awaits review by a Senate Subcommittee.

    Just as pediatric illnesses don’t afflict only Democratic or Republican children, our party labels should not prevent us from getting kids the health care they need when they need it.

    You can learn more about the issue in this short video with two Iowa moms:

  • Fix Iowa’s “worst in the nation” child sex abuse laws

    Professor Marci Hamilton, CEO of CHILD USA, spoke at the Iowa Statehouse on January 27, 2020.  In her presentation, she described why Iowa ranks among the worst states in the nation when it comes to laws that protect children from child abuse.  

    She described how Iowa’s comparatively very narrow statute of limitations for criminal and civil child sexual abuse protects the criminals rather than the victims.  The end result is that Iowa child sexual abusers and Iowa institutions that look the other way are LESS LIKELY to be exposed and stopped.

    More information about CHILD USA can be found at childusa.org

  • Video: Our leader’s opening day remarks

    On the opening day of the 2020 legislative session, Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen detailed how legislators can work together to “build healthier, happier, safer and stronger Iowa neighborhood for our parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and our friends.”

    Read her complete remarks.

  • Watch Dec. 14 Manufactured Housing Reform Hearing

    Below are links to the Facebook live stream taken at the Manufactured Housing Reform Meeting.

    LIVE VIDEOS

    Part 1 facebook.com/IowaSenateDemocrats/videos/2642283802527093/

    Part 2 facebook.com/IowaSenateDemocrats/videos/548923872626380/

  • Manufactured Housing Reform Hearing, Dec. 14

    (If you watch the above video on YouTube, you can use the comments to click to specific speakers.)

    Below are documents that were presented to the public during the meeting.

    Senator Zach Wahls’ One Page Overview Download pdf

    Memorandum on Iowa Code Chapter 562BDownload pdf

    Private Equity Giants Converge on Manufactured Homes – February 2019Download pdf

    LSA-Report-on-Iowa-Manufactured-HousingDownload pdf

    Data on Manufactured Homes in Iowa CitiesDownload pdf

    Link to more information on manufactured housing reform: senate.iowa.gov/democrats/manufactured-homes/

  • 2020 Session Must Fix Iowa’s Medical Cannabis Program

    (Des Moines)  Improved health care for tens of thousands of Iowans depends on passing major reforms of Iowa’s medical cannabis program during the 2020 session according to two legislative leaders on this issue.

    At a statehouse news conference today, Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City and Representative John Forbes of Urbandale listed reasons why the 2020 session will determine whether Iowa’s struggling medical cannabis program is able to improve.

    “Time is running out.  Recreational cannabis sales in Illinois will soon be undercutting Iowa’s legal, regulated medical cannabis businesses,” said Senator Bolkcom.  “As that program expands, it threatens the goal of making affordable, regulated medicines available to Iowans regardless of where they live.”

    For the last six years, legislators have debated various efforts to establish a working medical cannabis program. 

    “Iowa’s state government has so far failed to meet the needs of Iowans,” said Representative Forbes, an Urbandale pharmacist.  “Today, less than 4,000 Iowans have managed to become approved to legally purchase medicines made from cannabis.  That’s far less than the number that could be helped and not nearly enough to create a viable system.  The vast majority of all Americans live in states that have successfully created regulated, affordable, sustainable medical cannabis programs.  Why not Iowa?”

    In 2019, the Iowa House and Senate overwhelmingly approved major reforms to Iowa’s medical cannabis program.  The reforms would have expanded the number of conditions and made other changes that would have made Iowa’s program more similar to successful programs in other states.  After the session ended, Governor Reynolds unexpectedly vetoed that legislation.  Republicans, who control both chambers, unanimously refused to override Reynold’s veto.

    “Eliminating Iowa’s current 3% cap on the level of THC is very important for some patients with severe medical conditions,” said Representative Forbes.  “Adopting the standard of a 25 grams/90 days purchase cap would provide effective, affordable medication and put Iowa in line with what other states have done.””

    “When faced with serious, life threatening medical conditions, Iowans want better choices than opiods and other potentially dangerous drugs,” said Bolkcom.  “In just the first half of 2019, Iowa doctors wrote 850,000 prescriptions for narcotics.  Why are we preventing Iowans from having access to less dangerous alternatives?”

    ###

    Representative John Forbes and Senator Joe Bolkcom argue for reforms to Iowa’s “worst in the nation” medical cannabis program in a news conference at the Iowa Statehouse on Friday, November 15, 2019.

    Key reforms for Iowa’s “Worst in the Nation” Medical Cannabis Program

    • Eliminate the 3% THC cap and adopt a 25 grams/90 days purchase cap to provide effective, affordable medicine.
    • Add additional chronic conditions, including PTSD. (See the list from SF 506, the legislation overwhelmingly approved last year by the Iowa House and Senate.)
    • Allow twelve more dispensaries, particularly in small towns and rural Iowa.
    • Allow other practitioners, such as PAs, ARNPs and podiatrists, to certify medical conditions.
    • Revise the membership of the Advisory Board to include at least three medical cannabis patients.
    • Eliminate the Iowa Department of Transportation from the cannabis card process and allow IDPH to issue cards directly. Lower the cost to apply for a card to $25.
    • Eliminate the Iowa Board of Medicine from the process of getting approval for new conditions and cannabis products.
    • Add additional chronic conditions, including PTSD. (See the list from SF 506, the legislation overwhelmingly approved last year by the Iowa House and Senate.)

    Additional Conditions for Iowa’s Medical Cannabis Program

    Stop forcing sick Iowans to come to the Capitol and beg legislators for treatment options that could help them.

    Instead, Iowa should simply adopt the conditions covered by most other states.  That would mean adding the conditions listed below.

    • Glaucoma
    • Hepatitis C
    • Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
    • Post-traumatic stress disorder
    • Tourette’s syndrome
    • Muscular dystrophy
    • Huntington’s disease
    • Alzheimer’s disease
    • Complex regional pain syndrome, type I and II
    • Rheumatoid arthritis
    • Polyarteritis nodosa

  • Fight for medical cannabis reforms continues

    For Immediate Release: July 1, 2019

    Legislative leaders announce next steps in the fight for Iowa medical cannabis reforms

    News Conf Video: https://youtu.be/3LZjZNil7gQ

    Legislative advocates for reforming Iowa’s “worst in the nation” medical cannabis program say they will keep fighting for much needed reforms vetoed by Governor Reynolds.

    “Representative Forbes and I called on our colleagues to join us in calling for a special session to overturn Governor Reynold misguided veto of modest improvements to Iowa medical cannabis program,” said Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City.  “We are happy to report that every Democratic member of the Iowa Senate and Iowa House signed the call for a special session. Unfortunately, not a single Republican lawmaker acted to defend their votes.”

    In April, House File 732 passed the Iowa House by a vote of 96 to 3 and the Iowa Senate by a vote of 40 to 7.

    “We gave our Republican colleagues the opportunity to make a wrong by the governor into a right. They ignored us,” said Representative Forbes. “Now it is time to take action to make sure Iowa’s elected officials are advocates for people who are sick and not able to access and afford effective medicines.”

    The two legislators said they would immediately press for a legislative interim committee to prepare legislation for passage early in the next session beginning in January, 2020.

    “An interim committee would include public meetings and public input,” Bolkcom said.  “Secret meetings between the Governor and legislative Republicans failed to get the job done.  The Legislature needs to listen to patients and create a better program that meets their needs.”

    The Legislative Council Committee is scheduled to meet Thursday, July 11, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. in Room 22, at the State Capitol.

    “The July 11th meeting will be very important for Iowans who want to have the same access to effective medicines that most other Americans already have,” said Forbes.  “The goal now must be seeing the necessary medical cannabis reforms signed into law shortly after the January start of the 2020 session.”

    ###

  • Sen. Wahls on Iowa’s need for Manufactured Home Reform

    Transcript:
    I just wanted to make sure that the body was aware of a current situation that’s unfolding across our state. Over the last several weeks and months, an out-of-state corporation called Haven Park Capital has acquired several mobile home parks across Iowa. These are currently, the ones we know about at least, are located in Waukee, North Liberty, Indianola, Iowa City, and North Liberty. And when I heard about these acquisition– two of them are in my own district–I started to take a look and understand what the current state of mobile home resident law is in our state. And the answer is it’s not very good. And I know hopefully nearing the end of session here, and we’re getting pretty late in the session, but I just wanted to put on everyone’s radar, that this company is raising the rents on folks, at least in Waukee and North Liberty, by 70 percent with only about 60 days’ notice And a 70 percent increase with 60 days notice is not very much time. And so I’m interested in working with anybody who wants to try and take a look at what’s possible to help protect folks who are being affected by these rent increases. And potentially under the gun, for increases that may be coming in other communities. I’ve had the chance to speak with Senator Kinney, whose residents in North Liberty are being affected by this. We had some of those folks just yesterday in the capitol, and we have a couple ideas about things that we can do to help protect folks. And I’ll be trying to walk around and talk with people. I want to thank Senator Rosenbloom for his interest in potentially working together on this issue. And one of the things I just want to make clear for folks, is the current law basically offers mobile home owners or residents virtually zero protection. I want to read just a quick sentence from the lease that was handed to folks in the Waukee mobile home park by this new company, Haven Park Capital. This is on page four of the lease they were handed under the 12th clause: Use of premises. “Premises,” of course, being the home. Residents shall occupy the premises and shall only use the premises as a residence and not for any commercial purposes or any purpose other than as a residence. Commercial use, among other things, is defined to include baby sitting and or childcare for individuals other than the resident’s immediate family on a regular basis. Residents shall not undertake any illegal activity including but not limited to the use, transfer, possession or creation of any illegal substance on the premises or in the community. And shall not use the premises in any other illegal or unlawful manner or contrary to any applicable law, rule, regulation or ordinances of any federal, state or municipal authorities. All that’s totally fine. Here’s the kicker. Further, residents shall not move the home from the home site without the landlords’ prior written consent which may be withheld for any reason and/or no reason. The whole point of a mobile home is that it can move. And the lease that these folks are being subjected to prevents them from being able to do that at all. So, I’m interested in working with anybody who’s willing to do some work on this. We’ve got a couple of ideas that will hopefully get some bipartisan support. I’d like to talk with you before we get out of here and go home. Thank you Mr. President.