Meeting in Pittsburgh on May 28-29, the UE General Executive Board adopted a statement that endorses the fight of Local 893 against the efforts of Iowa Governor Terry Branstatd to privatize Medicaid. The GEB's statement appears below. A May 23 editorial in the Des Moines Register also opposes Branstad's scheme and urges people to contact the relevant officials in the Obama administration's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and urge them to deny Branstad the waivers he needs to privatize Medicaid in Iowa.
Oppose Medicaid Privatization in Iowa
The Branstad administration in Iowa is intent on privatizing the state’s Medicaid program, turning it over to for-profit managed care companies who want to make big bucks off the taxpayers.
A total of $4.2 billion of federal and state money is at risk, as is the health care of 500,000 Iowans. Privatizing Medicaid will actually increase administrative costs by 300% while reducing public oversight of how tax dollars are spent.
For these and other reasons, polls show that a majority of Iowans oppose the privatization of Medicare, yet the Branstad administration continues to push on.
However, this change cannot take place without the Obama administration approving the waiver requests that Iowa will soon be submitting. UE Local 893, which could see hundreds of their members lose their jobs in this privatization scheme, is mobilizing its members to contact the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to demand that the agency turn down any such waiver requests.
The UE General Executive Board adds its voice to this call and directs the national officers to send a letter to the Obama administration on behalf of the entire union stating our opposition to waivers being granted that would allow the privatization of Medicaid in Iowa.
UE General Executive Board, May 29, 2015