No More Excuses – Time to Implement Health Care Reform in Iowa

Statement of Iowa PIRG Advocate, Sonia Ashe, on U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Uphold Health Reform Law

Iowa PIRG

Today’s decision is good news for consumers in Iowa. Insurance companies can’t go back to the days of dropping your coverage once you become ill, or denying coverage to sick children. And beginning in 2014, the days of insurers being able to deny anyone coverage for “pre-existing conditions” will be history.

Now it’s time for Iowa’s leaders to move forward on the next steps, and make sure health reform delivers lower costs and better quality coverage.

With the last excuse for delay now behind us, Iowa should move ahead to put important consumer protections in place, like finalizing details for a new competitive marketplace for health insurance, and adopting new rules to protect consumers from unjustified rate hikes.  These kinds of reforms are critical to give consumers a better deal on coverage, and it’s up to the states to make them happen.

As we move forward with implementing health care reforms in Iowa, we must strive to put the interests of consumers – hard working families, senior citizens, our children – above special interests in order to make health care as affordable, accessible, and easily understood as possible. 

******
Iowa Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit, non-partisan consumer advocacy organization that stands up to powerful special interests for the public interest. For more information, visit our website at: www.iowapirg.org