Reynolds signs health care budget bill with controversial policies

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law Friday evening two emotionally charged measures that surfaced only in the final hours of this year’s legislative session — one exempting Medicaid from covering transgender medical procedures and another banishing Planned Parenthood from involvement in sex education programs in public schools.

Those provisions are included in a sweeping $2 billion budget that funds state departments covering health care, public health, veterans affairs and aging Iowans in fiscal 2020.

When lawmakers debated that budget, most disagreement was not over funding amounts but rather over the hot-button policies also included in House File 766.

One provision declares state and local governments are not required to cover gender reassignment surgery under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

Read more: https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/reynolds-signs-health-care-budget-bill-with-controversial-policies/article_b13e03ce-b577-590f-8d3a-6cb65c8b6209.html
(The Courier (Waterloo; Cedar Falls, Overland Park))