Iowa legislators join state legislators nationally
to defend health care gains; Call on Governor Branstad
to stand up for Iowa families
(Video) (What Iowans will lose)
(DES MOINES) Iowa legislators are among more than 500 state legislators from all 50 states who have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the constitutionality of the health law, arguing that “the minimum coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act is a valid exercise of Congress’s Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause powers.”
“Iowa has been named the best state in the nation when it comes to children’s health care. Yet there are still 300,000 uninsured Iowans. Skyrocketing health insurance rates continue to hamper job creation in Iowa and make Iowa households financially insecure,” said State Senator Jack Hatch of Des Moines, the past chair of the national Working Group of State Legislators for Health Reform. “Iowa’s health care crisis will not be solved without a strong federal effort to increase competition, control costs, improve quality, and insure every American.”
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad earlier joined 25 Republican governors and attorneys general to file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act on constitutional grounds.
“If the lawsuit Governor Branstad is part of takes away all the new health benefits Iowans already have received and will receive thanks to health reform, that will expose his effort to make Iowa the healthiest state empty political posturing,” said Hatch. “Governor, if you care about uninsured Iowans, about the rising health care costs choking Iowa’s economy, and about the strain on Iowa family budgets, you will withdraw from the short-term, blindly partisan effort to use the Supreme Court to deny urgently needed health care from Iowans.”
Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, the chair to national Progressive States Network, which helped organized the national effort by state legislators, detailed what Iowans stand to lose if the federal health reform law is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Insurance companies will be free to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, young adults will no longer be covered under their parents’ insurance. Iowa seniors will lose free preventative care services, the rebate for prescription drugs and donut hole discount on brand-name drugs, which saves them an average of 569 a year,” said Bolkcom. “The patient bill of rights that eliminated a host of insurance company abuses will be eliminated.”
The Amicus Brief strongly defending the Affordable Care Act in the challenge currently before the Supreme Court. The brief will be filed this Friday and was prepared and filed in conjunction with the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC).
“The idea that the federal government does not have the power to address a national problem such as the health care crisis has no basis in the Constitution’s text and history,” argue the legislators in the text of the brief.
CAC Chief Counsel Elizabeth Wydra said, “Because the Affordable Care Act is supported by the Constitution’s text and history – as well as Supreme Court precedent going back to the Founding era – challenges to health care reform have a lot more to do with politics than they do the Constitution. After losing in Congress, conservatives are simply looking for courts to give them a judicial do-over. Fortunately, judges across the ideological spectrum – including those appointed by Chairs George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan – have upheld the Act as constitutional, and we are confident the Supreme Court will agree.”
“Almost two years after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, and as a pivotal year kicks off, this brief is an incredible statement of support for health law from the states,” added Progressive States Network Executive Director Ann Pratt. “It’s also a sign of how responsible state lawmakers all across the nation are coming together in 2012 to turn the tide from political gamesmanship and attacks to working to protect the gains already made for the health security of families under the Affordable Care Act: one million young adults now newly covered, four million seniors who have received help affording prescription drugs, and a patients’ bill of rights that puts an end to many insurance industry abuses.”
A summary of the Amicus Brief text is available at: http://www.progressivestates.org/ACAamicus The full text, accompanied by a full list of signers will be available via the above URL on Thursday, January 12th.
Progressive States Network (http://www.progressivestates.org) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the work of progressive state legislators around the country and to the passage of state legislation that delivers on issues the issues that matter to working families: strong wage standards and workplace freedom, balancing work and family responsibilities, health care for all, smart growth and clean energy, tax and budget reform, clean and fair elections, and technology investments to bridge the digital divide.
Constitutional Accountability Center (http://www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.