Thousands of Iowa farmers and small business owners will soon be able to afford health insurance.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Monday signed Senate File 2349. Reynolds says the bill will provide relief to Iowans who currently cannot afford health insurance.
?Senate File 2349 will allow Farm Bureau to build a self-funded, health benefit arrangement that will work for Iowans who were forced from the individual market,? Reynolds said. ?It will also give small employers the ability to ban together, to create affordable healthcare options for their employees.?
Reynolds notes: ?Before Obamacare, Iowa had a healthy, individual (health) insurance market.? Nine carriers offered individual plans at reasonable premiums. She further discusses the devastating effects of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare in Iowa.
?Last year alone, premiums went up 57% – meaning many Iowans faced a choice of going broke or going without insurance, and that?s not really a choice. Approximately 26,000 Iowans left the insurance market this year alone; that?s 26,000 more Iowans who do not have insurance because they simply cannot afford it. These are farmers, small business owners and employees,? Reynolds said.
Reynolds thanks the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Insurance Division Commissioner Doug Ommen and many more for support of Senate File 2349.
?I have urged Congress to fix this problem. As I said in the Condition of the State address, we?re done waiting. That?s why we asked legislators and various stakeholders to work to find solutions that give Iowans access to affordable healthcare, and that is exactly what they did in a bipartisan fashion,? Reynolds said.
