The Governor Ray Way Seems Lost Today

Iowans will remember Governor Robert Ray for his character. His politics were focused on common sense public policy that worked for all Iowans. When Gov. Ray successfully advocated for Iowa toddler Katie Beckett to receive a home and community-based Medicaid waiver so she could leave the hospital and be cared for in her home, he observed, “It makes you feel good that things like this do develop; it makes you realize that government can be humanized.”

Meet a Hospital Hero: Jessica Justi

Jessica Justi loves nursing because of the impact she has on the lives of patients and their families. Her influence has been felt far and wide, from the neighbors she serves at Sanford Sheldon Medical Center and throughout the Midwest through telemedicine. As nursing inpatient manager, Jessica not only provides exceptional patient care, she is a trusted leader, overseeing the emergency department staff and is a member of the facility’s nursing leadership team.

How Iowa’s Individual Insurance Market Went from Bad to Worse

Iowa’s new law exempting certain health plans from state and federal regulation will make a bad situation worse for the state’s individual insurance market. The law is supposed to give individual market consumers access to cheaper, non-Obamacare health plans. But it’s likely the law will lead to further market segmentation as only healthier Iowans will benefit from these unregulated plans.

Iowa’s Medicaid Mess is All Too Familiar

Much like Iowa, things have not gone well with Medicaid privatization in Kansas. And, again like Iowa, promises that the MCOs would save millions of dollars and make people healthier have been called into question. So much so that in April 2017, Kansas legislators directed the state’s independent auditors to find out whether KanCare is working. Their conclusion: It’s not.

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