Letters: Spending discussions go in wrong direction for health
Labor bill is not good for Iowa children
To Gov. Kim Reynolds: Please do not sign Senate File 542, the child labor bill that just came out of the Legislature.
High school students can already work and earn money for savings or to help with household expenses. But what high school student could work 30 to 40 hours per week and still engage with their education in any meaningful way? The bill is an effort to help the construction, retail, and food service industries, where child labor law violations are most common. Lobbyists for these industries pushed for the bill in an endless quest to keep wages as low as possible in Iowa. But the labor force has been telling these industries that their jobs are unattractive at the wages currently offered, and this bill will not change that fact.
If the goals are to help teens and find more workers, we should raise Iowa's minimum wage, which at $7.25 is among the very lowest in the nation. If teens got paid more, they could work fewer hours and have more time for school, rest and activities that promote mental health. Teens don't need just any job; they need jobs that are safe, pay well, and lead to a fulfilling, living-wage career.
— Chris Noth, Des Moines
Spending discussions go in wrong direction for health
Our leaders in Washington are currently discussing how to avoid a default on the nation’s debt. Included in discussions are some concerning provisions that would directly impact lung health here in Iowa, including ones that threaten health care and air quality.
Iowa residents rely on Medicaid to access quality, affordable health care. One provision under discussion would add barriers to health care called “work requirements.” According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 91% of individuals in the Medicaid expansion group are either workers, caregivers, students, or unable to work due to illness. These requirements aren’t about work; they are about adding unnecessary and burdensome paperwork that results in people losing their coverage due to red tape.
Other provisions under discussion would repeal tax incentives for clean energy, or would open the door for building more polluting energy sources like coal and gas while weakening the public’s right to engage in those permitting decisions. More than 1 in 3 Americans live with unhealthy air. Adding more pollution will exacerbate health challenges.
As the chair of the Iowa Local Leadership Board with the American Lung Association, I know firsthand the importance of health care and clean air for people living with chronic diseases like asthma and COPD. If these provisions went into effect, many more people could face poor air quality or the loss of their healthcare coverage, leaving them unable to manage their chronic lung disease, which results in more dire, costlier care down the road.
These provisions would especially harm people with disabilities, children, individuals who are pregnant and seniors in nursing homes. I ask that Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst reject the “work requirement” policy for Medicaid and the buildout of additional polluting energy to better protect the health of all Iowans.
— Alicia Gerke, Iowa City
Majorities don’t speak for everybody
It bothers me when politicians say things like, “The people of Iowa (or any state) believe” this or that controversial position. In Iowa, for instance, each party has around 650,000 registered voters. with the Republicans having the larger quantity by a few thousand. Only a 1% to 2% advantage.
Politicians ignore this, and make it sound like the populace is homogeneous, and that the people of the state approve of extreme positions. When you go to extremes, as our Legislature does, almost half of the citizens disagree strongly with many of the bills being proposed and passed into law. Basically, our Legislature is telling almost half of the state that they have the power by a thin margin, and they will completely disregard the wishes of almost half the people in the state. They will probably call it good government.
— Frank McCammond, Redfield