Smoking Declines in Iowa

The smoking rate among Iowans has delcined from 19% in 2007 to 14% in 2008.

From Bleeding Heartland...

...it's been a full year since the Iowa Smokefree Air Act went into effect. The public smoking ban was one of the most controversial bills considered during the 2008 legislative session, and advocates praised the law's success at a press conference this week.

According to a recent Iowa Department of Public Health survey, 14 percent of Iowans smoke. In 2007, IDPH research estimated the smoking rate at 19 percent. That's a significant decline, suggesting that around one-quarter of Iowans who smoked in 2007 have since quit. The $1 a pack tax hike on cigarettes approved in 2007 was probably a major factor in this trend as well.

Why Iowa Needs Health Reform

From HealthReform.Gov...

THE HEALTH CARE STATUS QUO:

Why Iowa Needs Health Reform

Congress and the President are working to enact health care reform legislation that protects what works about health care and fixes what is broken. Iowans know that inaction is not an option. Sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets. Millions are paying more for less. Families and businesses in Iowa deserve better.

IOWANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

• Roughly 1.9 million people in Iowa get health insurance on the job¹, where family premiums average $12,206, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.²
• Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 88 percent in Iowa.³
• Household budgets are strained by high costs: 19 percent of middle-income Iowa families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.⁴
• High costs block access to care: 8 percent of people in Iowa report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.⁵
• Iowa businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $600 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.⁶

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN IOWA

• 10 percent of people in Iowa are uninsured, and 71 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.⁷
• The percent of Iowans with employer coverage is declining: from 71 to 65 percent between 2000 and 2007.⁸
• Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 76 percent of Iowa businesses,⁹ only 39 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 2 percent since 2000.¹⁰
• Choice of health insurance is limited in Iowa. Wellmark BC and BS alone constitutes 71 percent of the health insurance market share in Iowa, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 80 percent.¹¹
• Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Iowa, premiums can vary, within limits, based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

IOWANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

• The overall quality of care in Iowa is rated as “Average.”¹²
• Preventative measures that could keep Iowans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:
  • 11 percent of children in Iowa are obese.¹³
  • 21 percent of women over the age of 50 in Iowa have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
  • 36 percent of men over the age of 50 in Iowa have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
  • 74 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Iowa have received a flu vaccine in the past year.¹⁴

The need for reform in Iowa and across the country is clear. Iowa families simply can’t afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans.

Health Care Reform: All or Nothing? Grassley Says Nothing

Here's a quote from Sen. Jay Rockerfeller (D-WV) about bipartisanship and health care reform...

"But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health care plan? That is the choice."

-- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), quoted in the Charleston Gazette, expecting little Republican support in passing health care reform.

Sen. Grassley, however, thinks the bill must be bipartisan and Republicans need to make sure there is no public option.

What's Wrong With this Picture?

Here's a screenshot from Fox News's coverage yesterday of South Carolina Governor, Republican Mark Sanford's press conference.

Sanford admitted to having an affair after going missing for 6 days when he was seeing his mistress in Argentina.

Notice anything wrong with the with the ticker Fox News showed in this picture?

Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine: Secret Meeting Details Uncovered!

Obama, The Deficit Hawk

From Matthew Yglesias...

There’s a lot of political concern in Washington about public anxiety about budget deficits. Substantively, the public’s concerns don’t really make sense, as deficit-reduction amidst a severe recession will only make the recession more severe. But Stan Collender, whose deficit hawk credentials should not be in question, observes that the political problem is largely a mirage as well:

If you look beyond the very short-term, the deficit situation will begin to turnaround next year, that is, before the election. Under current forecasts, the deficit will fall by a record amount from 2009 to 2010. It will still be high by virtually anyone’s standards — probably around $1 trillion or so. But the big change in the right direction will give the White House the breathing room it needs and alter the politics substantially. Anyone want to bet that there will be a cover story somewhere next year calling Obama the deficit killer?

This will, of course, not be a substantive fix for anything. But the nominal deficit reduction will, indeed, be huge. As the economy recovers, tax revenues will rise, social safety net outlays will fall, and stimulus measures will begin to tamp down. If we can assume further growth in 2011, the complete expiry of Recovery Act provisions, and the winding down of the Iraq War, that’ll be further deficit reduction.

Obama, The Nerd Presidency

John Hodgeman spoke at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner over the weekend and discects the culture of war of our time: jocks vs nerd. Hodgeman concludes that the Obama administration is the first nerd presidency.

Is a Public Option for Health Insurance a Good Idea?

The Des Moines Register wrote this editorial this morning about the merits of a public option.

So how do you decide whether a public option for health insurance is a good idea?

Ask people who already have it.

And you won't have any trouble finding them. About one-third of Americans - nearly 100 million people - already use Medicare and Medicaid, which together cover seniors, the disabled and the poor. The programs are administered by the government and heavily funded by taxpayers.

They're optional. No one has to sign up. But millions do.

Ask them why they opted to join a government program instead of just going out to purchase health insurance in the private sector, as every American is free to try to do. Ask people with Medicaid whether the government has denied enrolling them (if they met income requirements) or charged them more because of a pre-existing medical condition. Ask seniors with Medicare whether they're worried about losing health insurance if they change jobs or get too sick or can no longer afford to pay the premiums.

If you have time for only one question, ask this: Did a government employee accompany you to your last doctor's appointment?

The Paradox of Health Care Reform

Matthew Yglesisas explains the paradox of health care reform that left must overcome...

The big problem, politically speaking, with health care is that you basically have people on the left arguing both sides of the question. On the one hand, insofar as your plan is “big government” that’s left-wing. But insofar as your plan is expensive, that’s also left-wing. Which is because people normally think of big government programs as expensive. But when it comes to health care, heavy-handed government intervention is actually way cheaper than private sector alternatives. Consequently, every time you try to make the plan more “moderate” by, for example, curbing the influence of a public option you actually wind up making the plan more “left wing” by needing to raise more taxes. And if you want to make the plan cheaper, while still actually achieving its goals, then you need to make it more left-wing not more moderate. But in the United States,ideological correctness and special interest politics prevents us from admitting this.

Rants Makes It Official

Yesterday, State Rep. Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) posted on Twitter that he plans to file exploratory committee papers so he can being raising money and officially campaign for the 2010 race for governor.

Here's more from the Des Moines Register...

Rants, who has been meeting with GOP activists for months about a possible campaign, said he had met his early target for fundraising pledges. He also estimated it would take $2 million to mount a successful primary campaign.

Rants, 41, is among the party's younger prospects. His announcement via Twitter, the popular social networking Web site, signaled his response to Democrats' advantages in reaching voters through new media.

But Rants added during the program that the Iowa GOP, beset by consecutive statewide election losses and a voter registration gap of 110,000 with Democrats, would need a winning message as well as media.

"If we talk to those Republicans who believe the party has lost its way on things like fiscal discipline and accountability, if we become the party that's about transparency and reforming government - and that's who we are as Republicans - if we're successful in doing that, I believe we'll bring those independents back, we'll bring the majority back," he said.

Rants also appeared on Iowa Press which aired Friday and will be shown again on Sunday morning at 11:30. You can watch the appearance here.

From the Democratic viewpoint, I believe this means 3 things...

1. Steve King isn't going to run for Governor. I don't think Rants would have run against King and instead would have run for King's seat in Congress if King ran for governor.
2. Rants is a more viable candidate than Bob Vander Plaats. Mainly because Rants has more fundraising connection through his leadership positions in the Iowa House.
3. Rants, Vander Plaats, or any of the other rumored candidates will not be able to beat Gov. Culver in the general election. Republican Doug Gross, the party's nominee for governor in 2002, said it himself...

“I think they are all fine people and I don’t think any of them will be the nominee,” Gross said. ”I think we want to win and our nominee is going to have to have that statewide reach.”

Grassley: "Greed is human nature."

Sen. Grassley appeared on MSNBC today to discuss economic regulation where he said greed is human nature.

And when asked if the banks are in any position to protest if they're not going to make as much money, Grassley comes back with this:

Greed is human nature. We shouldn't blame greed any more than you'd blame gravity when a plane has an accident and goes down.

I'm sorry Senator, but I think we can blame greed for the mess we're in. Greed and the unwillingness of the government to put a check on it.

You can watch the comment here at about the 3:05 mark.

Sen. Grassley says greed isn't the problem. Yet, in 1980 on average CEOs earned 42 times the salary of the average workes and now they earn about 476 times that salary.

Later in the video Grassley says that the problem is that banks didn't have enough money. He probably has a point. The banks were giving all of their money to their greedy CEOs.

Feingold Seeks Strong Public Option in Health Care Reform

Howard Dean has a petition online where you can send a letter to your Senators telling them to support a public option in health care reform. Sen. Grassley needs to hear from you.