Take it from me: Iowa is not a good place to have a disability - Representative Josh Turek

Privatized health care’s focus on maximizing profits comes at the expense of providing quality care.
Josh Turek . Guest columnist


As the sole permanently disabled representative in the Iowa Legislature, I feel an enormous responsibility to be the voice of the 15% of Iowans with a disability. In service to this, I would like to provide you with a "Condition of the State for Disabled Iowans." And quite frankly, Iowa is not a good place to be disabled.

Iowa’s Republican trifecta in the House, Senate and governor's office, in its crusade against public services, has directly attacked the disabled community. I believe this attack is largely the result of genuine ignorance, a consequence of the disabled population having essentially no direct representation in state government. This and of course the most important factor — that privatized health care’s focus on maximizing profits comes at the expense of providing quality care. For the past several years, politics and culture wars have been the top priorities of the governor and too many lawmakers while disabled Iowans have been ignored.

The preeminent issue affecting disabled Iowans is health care. Iowa now has 20,468 disabled individuals on the Home- and Community-Based Services Medicaid waitlists, a number that grows by 1,000 each year. The longest waitlist, the intellectual disability waiver, currently has a six-year wait, plus an additional 14 months just to qualify. Disabled Iowans are waiting for such services as personal care, food preparation and critical home repairs or modifications. While waiting, they often go without care, pay for services out of their own pockets, end up in emergency rooms, or stay in expensive institutional settings. Years of insufficient funding have greatly worsened this problem. Most states have set aside funding and resources to eliminate their waitlist. In Iowa our waitlist is one of the longest and continues to grow.

Disabled Iowans also face barriers to employment. Median earnings for Iowa’s disabled workers rank 47th out of 50 states. Only 15% of permanently disabled Iowans are fully employed. This is largely due to the state’s harsh restrictions on Medicaid qualification. Currently, a disabled Iowan on Medicaid is severely limited in earnings to poverty and limited to $12,000 in total assets, or $13,000 if married. If this is exceeded, they lose all of their health care benefits. This disincentivizes marriage, employment, and career progression, keeping this minority group in enforced poverty. It is unjust to have to choose between basic health care and earning a livable wage, marriage or home or vehicle ownership. Many other states have moved to a system without income or asset limits for their disabled. In Iowa, we keep our disabled in poverty and unemployed.

More with links...https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2024/02/25/iowa-disabilites-not-good-place-live/72686838007/