Governor hears from voters on health care, minimum wage during stop in Ames

Jan. 19--Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds took her Condition of the State address on the road Thursday, rehashing last week's speech in front of about 70 people at the west Ames Hy-Vee before taking questions on health care, the minimum wage and water quality.

Reynolds, a Republican, is overseeing her first session of the Legislature as governor after former Gov. Terry Branstad departed last year. She's also running for re-election this year, and entered the room to a standing ovation. Her visit to Ames marked a stop on her "Unleashing Opportunity" tour.

She offered a shorter version of last week's Condition of the State address, highlighting workforce development, her desire for tax reform, funding education and more. She repeated what she said last week: the condition of Iowa is "strong."

Toward the end of her question-and-answer session after her remarks, a member of the audience asked about the state's faltering healthcare system.

Standing at the back of the Hy-Vee's event room, Lori Hunt of Des Moines asked the governor how she plans to stabilize the Affordable Care Act exchange in Iowa, in which only one private health insurance carrier remains. Will she support allowing people to buy their health coverage from Medicaid, a federal health care provider?

Reynolds mentioned the high premium increases -- more than 50 percent -- for Iowans who get their insurance through Medica, the lone Obamacare provider. The governor said she's working with the Legislature to create a "temporary fix" so some of the 17,000 Iowans unable to afford the insurance plans offered on the exchange can get at least some access to health care.

"But ultimately, Congress needs to take care of it," Reynolds said. "They created the problem, they need to fix it. Whatever it looks like, it needs to be done at the Congressional level."

When Hunt asked for specifics on the fix, Reynolds said her office and lawmakers are still working on it with a couple possible solutions emerging. Hunt again asked about buying into Medicaid, and the governor said they were looking into that, too, but the fix would have to be sustainable.

"It's not very concrete," Hunt said of the governor's response. Unsurprisingly, she'd prefer people have the option to buy into Medicaid, an option her friend, Democratic Sen. Matt McCoy, proposed at the Legislature.

Reynolds also took a question about Iowa's minimum wage ($7.25 an hour). The woman said "Iowa took a step back" last year when lawmakers passed a bill freezing the pay rate, nullifying higher pay rates in some Iowa counties.

The governor said she was encouraged by the federal government approving tax reform. Businesses are in need of workers, so wages are on their way up, Reynolds suggested. She didn't say no to raising the minimum wage, but she said she'll wait and see what the Legislature does.

In her answer, she plugged Future Ready Iowa, the state's workforce-development initiative designed to ready Iowans for higher-paying jobs. As an example, Reynolds said she wanted to give working mothers the chance to pursue a more fruitful career and not have to worry about high childcare costs that could prevent them from doing so.

Not all the people she called on had questions. Some had praise and compliments to offer. One woman offered praise for Reynolds' economic development efforts. So did Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who also attended the event, when he said Reynolds is leading Iowa in the right direction. He cited Iowa's high rate of high school graduation, middle-class affordability and low unemployment rate (2.5 percent in November).

"The numbers back it up," he said.

In her Condition of the State address, Reynolds said she wants the Legislature to explore reforming the state's tax code. One person Thursday asked if that would include the addition of the 3/8ths of one percent sales tax, which voters approved in 2010, to fund water quality initiatives.

Reynolds said the tax plan is still in progress, but, as she said in her address, she wants to sign a water-quality bill early in the session, which is a distinct possibility. She said there's an opportunity to secure a source of revenue to ensure quality water in the state, and advanced technology could help the cause.

William Clark, who asked the question, said he didn't expect the governor to commit to the sales tax. In his view, technological solutions won't be enough to ensure water quality by themselves. He's a Democrat, but he also described himself as an independent thinker.

"Both Democrats and Republicans can be too damn dogmatic," Clark said. "And what I want is to see solutions that are going to broadly based in terms of both their scientific merit and their impacts on people."

___

(c)2018 the Ames Tribune, Iowa

Visit the Ames Tribune, Iowa at www.amestrib.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.