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Gingrich gets a mandate question in Decorah (audio)

December 28, 2011 By

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faced a “tougher question” in Decorah late last night about his past support of a health care mandate. The question came from a man in the crowd.

“It’s not going to be mean, but it’s going to make you justify an answer,” the man told Gingrich. “Throughout the GOP debates you were strongly against RomneyCare and tonight you also said you were against ObamaCare, but back in 2006 I believe it is when the Massachusetts health care bill was passed, a newsletter under your name called Newt’s Notes came out and said that you fully supported that Massachusetts health care and then went further to say that the goal should be 100 percent coverage for all citizens. How can you reconcile that apparent contradiction?”

Gingrich responded by saying the goal is laudable, it’s just figuring out how to get 100 percent coverage for all citizens “in a constitutional way.”

“I would like to see all citizens have access to health care and I think everybody here wants to see that. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have a mandate,” Gingrich said. “But I think everybody here recognizes we’re not going to let people die in the streets.”

AUDIO of the question and Gingrich’s answer.

Gingrich said he first talked about health care mandates “with the Heritage Foundation” in 1993 when he was trying to defeat “HillaryCare” — a reference to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s failed health care reform effort.

“The Heritage Foundation was positive about RomneyCare also in 2006. First of all, neither the Heritage (Foundation) nor I realized that Romney Care pays, uses taxpayer money to pay for abortions and neither of us realized that they had accepted Planned Parenthood by law as one of the members of their health board or I think we would have both said, ‘You ought to veto the whole bill if that’s what’s going to happen.’” 

Gingrich told the crowd in Decorah the health care mandate is “too expensive” and “too bureaucratic.”

“The difference between Romney and me is we both used to have the wrong idea. I’m willing to say it was the wrong idea. He’s not and I think it’s funny that they want to attack me for admitting that I was wrong, but they won’t admit that he’s when now wrong to think that he’s still right when he’s wrong,” Gingrich said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Gingrich fielded questions about farm policy, military deployments and a child in the crowd asked Gingrich what his favorite color was – it’s red.

(Additional reporting by Darin Svenson, KDEC, Decorah)

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Perry says reelecting Obama would be “insanity”

December 22, 2011 By

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says 1,300 people move into Texas every day, mainly because of the business climate he helped create there as governor of Texas for the past 11 years. 

“If a state decides that they want to have a rather high tax burden or…if they wanted to have mandated insurance that everyone was required to buy, I mean you could go live in Massachusetts,” Perry said late Wednesday.

That’s a dig at rival Mitt Romney who signed a law when he was Massachusetts governor that requires Massachusetts residents to have health insurance.  Romney has said it’s the solution people in his state decided upon and he has vowed to repeal the national health care mandate President Obama signed into law. Perry says the insurance mandate is an example of how the federal government has become “too intrusive.”

“That, I will suggest to you, is part of what the conversation with Americans is about at this particular point in time as we go into this 2012 presidential election,” Perry told a crowd in Mount Pleasant Wednesday. “And who is it on the stage or in the White House today who we want to lead America for the next four years?”

Sticking with Obama for another four years would be “insanity” according to Perry.

“I’m sure our founding fathers would recognize the country today, as we see what America has kind of transformed into where Washington has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” Perry said in Burlington this morning, “and our liberties have gotten smaller and smaller.”

About 100 people gathered to hear Perry in Burlington this morning and they applauded Perry’s promise to repeal the health care mandate.

“In my home state, $2.7 billion more every year to comply with ObamaCare,” Perry said. “My first day in office, I will sign an executive order to wipe out as much of ObamaCare as I can and introduce legislation to kill the rest of it.” 

Perry is among three GOP presidential candidates who are campaigning in Iowa today.

(Theresa Rose from KILJ in Mt Pleasant and Michael Cation from KBUR in Burlington contributed to this report.)

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

“Traveling” trophies for communities, corporations that win at losing (audio)

December 19, 2011 By

Doug Reichart, Iowa Sports Foundation chair, stands beside trophies

Iowa communities and companies will be able to compete for two new titles — and the winners get a huge, silver “traveling” trophy. The “Live Healthy Iowa” challenge will start January 23, 2012.

“The ‘Live Healthy’ 100-day challenge is a great part of our wellness program at Meredith, in fact we’ve been participants in the challenge since 2006,” says Tim O’Neil, wellness director at Meredith Corporation. “Last year over 70 percent of our workforce participated.”

According to O’Neil, Meredith employees have shed 21,000 pounds over the last six years — including 6000 pounds in the past year alone.  He spoke this morning at a statehouse news conference where the trophies were unveiled and, as leaders from other notable Iowa corporations stood nearby, O’Neil put them on notice that Meredith intends to win the trophy.

“We at Meredith are happy to participate again in the overall program and compete against other Iowa employers in the Corporate Cup Challenge, so Bill, Rick and Laura — game on!,” O’Neil said this morning. “Let’s take the  ‘Live Healthy’ challenge to a new level and another big step to becoming the healthiest state in the nation.”

The healthiest state initiative is Governor Branstad’s brainchild, and he was asked this morning if the statehouse cafeteria might start serving healthier fare.

“That’s a great question,” Branstad said, laughing. “I think that deserves to be looked into, not only the statehouse cafetera, but my daughter and I talked about this — the school cafeterias, too.”

Branstad’s daughter, Alison, is a teacher in Waukee. Branstad, though, does not expect legislators to pass any new mandates for school cafeteria menus, or for the cafeterias in the state capitol complex.

Last year over 30,000 Iowans participated in the “Live Healthy Iowa” challenge and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds said the goal is to have twice as many Iowans participate in 2012.  The Community Cup Challenge can pit cities or even counties against one another.

“The winning community will be recognized in a press conference in May of 2012 and they will be presented with the traveling trophy,” Reynolds said. “Governor Branstad and I encourage all Iowa communities to compete in the Community Cup Challenge to help us meet our goal of being the healthiest state in the nation.”

Listen to the AUDIO of Branstad’s weekly news conference.

Filed Under: Business, Health & Medicine, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Vaile insurance company agrees to settlement in crop insurance fraud case

December 12, 2011 By

The owner of a Vail insurance company has agreed to a settlement over claims of fraud involving crop insurance. The U.S. Justice Department says Russell Hawley and Hawley Insurance Incorporated of Vail have agreed to pay $834,897 dollars to settle allegations that they caused false claims to be submitted to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed against Hawley federal district court in Sioux City, the principal owner of Hawley Insurance in. The lawsuit alleged that Hawley submitted forged crop insurance applications and other false documents to a private insurance company designated by the federal government to sell federally reinsured crop insurance policies.

The government was required to pay out on these policies when the insured crops failed.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Crime & Courts, News Tagged With:

Ron Paul says unemployment rate likely “closer to 22 percent” (audio)

December 8, 2011 By

Ron Paul speaking in Des Moines.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the federal government is “fudging” reports about unemployment, consumer spending and the country’s productivity.

Paul cites the recent federal report that unemployment had fallen below nine percent.

“If you go and look at some free market statistics measuring unemployment more like they did in the 1930s, it’s probably closer to 22 percent when you measure everybody who’s under-employed as well as those who have given up looking for work,” Paul says.

Paul has long been a critic of U.S. monetary policy and he warns the federal government has to stop its “guns and butter forever” philosophy.

“Governments aren’t always that straightforward,” Paul says. “…Sometimes they don’t tell us the truth whether it has to deal with foreign policy or domestic economic policy. Something the figures are fudged, there’s always a (political) spin and yet the people have to sort things out.”

Paul spoke earlier this afternoon in Des Moines to about 400 employees of the Principal Financial Group.  Here’s the AUDIO of Paul’s appearance.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Branstad accepts $7 million linked to health care reform law

November 29, 2011 By

Despite Governor Branstad’s opposition to the new national health care reform law, the State of Iowa is accepting a federal grant to build a new state “insurance exchange” to help individuals and small businesses find health care coverage.

The $7 million grant to the Iowa Department of Public Health will finance “insurance market research” and other work to get the exchange up and running by January, 2014.

Iowa’s governor has joined a lawsuit challenging the national health care reform law, and this grant comes as a result of that law. A spokesman for the governor says the state will accept the grant, even though Branstad believes “the government takeover of health care is unworkable and unaffordable for states.”  The governor’s press secretary says the $7 million in federal funds will off-set state taxes that would have been spent complying with the new health care law.  (Read the full statement below.) 

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, director of coverage policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says her agency is encouraging states to accept the money, despite objections to other parts of the health care reform legislation.

“It is a bipartisan concept to establish exchanges and there’s support from both sides of the aisle and we continue to encourage states to come in and move forward and not let anything stand in the way,” Brooks-LaSure says, “and we’re confident that the law will be upheld.”

U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius says state-level “insurance exchanges” will help individuals and families who have to buy coverage on their own.

“Shopping for coverage has become a daunting task and too many Americans have been priced-out or locked-out of the system,” Sebelius says. “Families spend valuable hours pouring over fine print to find a plan that will cover their needs and small business owners pay an average of 18 percent more for insurance than the larger chains they’re competing against.” 

State legislators have quarreled over how best to set up the exchange and it’s unclear whether the state will meet the deadline for setting up the system on its own.  Under the health care reform law, the federal government steps in and sets up the exchange in 2014 if a state fails to do so. Sebelius and Brooks-LaSure made their comments late this morning during a telephone conference call with reporters.

Here is the statement from Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht:

The governor continues to believe that the government takeover of health care is unworkable and unaffordable for states, and the governor continues to believe that the lawsuit will be successful.

Should the government takeover of health care move forward, we need to manage and implement specific solutions for Iowa’s extensive needs, rather than a federally mandated, one-size-fits-all exchange.

We will use this grant to help plan for an Iowa-based exchange. The $7 million federal grant means we will not need to use that portion of the state’s general fund to implement the federal government’s takeover of health care.

At this time, our focus should be on lowering health care costs, which the exchange will fail to do. This is why the governor is focused on making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation.

If the federal government forces states to have any exchange, it should be Iowa-built rather than crafted by a bureaucrat in Washington.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, News Tagged With: , , ,

Iowa gets $7 million national health care reform grant

November 29, 2011 By

Iowa is among 13 states awarded a federal grant to build new “insurance exchanges” that are to help individuals and small businesses find health care coverage.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the $7 million grant to the Iowa Department of Public Health will finance “insurance market research” and other work to get the exchange up and running by January, 2013.

However, Iowa’s governor has joined a lawsuit challenging the national health care reform law, and this grant comes as a result of that law. A spokesman for the governor hasn’t yet said whether the state will accept the $7 million.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, director of coverage policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says her agency is encouraging states to accept the money, despite objections to other parts of the health care reform legislation.

“It is a bipartisan concept to establish exchanges and there’s support from both sides of the aisle and we continue to encourage states to come in and move forward and not let anything stand in the way,” Brooks-LaSure says, “and we’re confident that the law will be upheld.”

LaSure made her comments this morning during a telephone conference call with reporters.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,
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