Governor blasts Republican budget proposals involving low-income insurance

Governor Tom Vilsack is adamantly opposed to a republican proposal to kick three-thousand Iowa kids off state-paid health insurance through the HAWK-I program.HAWK-I provides health insurance to kids whose parents work but can’t afford to buy health insurance. The G-O-P budget plan would lower the income guidelines for the program, and Vilsack says three thousand Iowa kids will be harmed. Vilsack says budgets are often discussed as big numbers, and that often leads people to forget they involve people and principles. Vilsack says the plan “makes no sense” when the state has an emergency reserve.Vilsack also is objecting to the G-O-P plan to increase the co-payment Iowans on Medicaid must make when filling a prescription. Today, the co-pay is a buck. Republicans want to double that to two bucks. Vilsack says that’ll hurt seniors as the money adds up when there are several prescriptions they must buy.Vilsack says other parts of the republican budget plan for the Department of Human Services may lead to federal sanctions and a loss of some federal funds. Republicans are unwilling to dip deeper into the state’s economic emergency fund, and they say some budget cuts are necessary.