Theresa Greenfield wants to sell herself as a moderate ag-loving business leader for the “workin’ folks.”
She ends her first campaign commercial exclaiming, “Let’s invest in education, small business, and affordable healthcare for all of us. I’m Theresa Greenfield, and I’m running for U.S. Senate because I’ll never forget who I am, where I’m from, and who I’m fighting for.” Well, who are YOU fighting for Theresa Greenfield? It certainly isn’t the “workin’ folks.” There are many policy stances you can point to that contradict her pledge to help the “workin’ folks.” Maybe that’s why she’s too scared to debate Senator Joni Ernst; she’d have to face some tough questions. Let’s take a deeper dive into her healthcare position and let the facts speak for themselves.
On her campaign website, it says, “Greenfield is committed to strengthening and protecting rural hospitals and healthcare options in underserved rural areas.”
What’s the problem with this? Well, spoiler, she doesn’t. Only two paragraphs earlier, she mentions her support for a public option, which would pit the federal government against private insurance companies, essentially running them out of business.
According to one analysis, this is the same public option plan that would close up to 52 rural hospitals in Iowa alone. Our hospitals rely on private insurance companies to make up the difference from Medicare reimbursement rates, which pays hospitals 87 cents for every dollar of care. Having a public option means they’ll likely use Medicare reimbursement rates for those who use a government-sponsored plan. Rural hospitals could lose up to $476 million if that is the case. That doesn’t sound like strengthening rural hospitals to me.
Many of us workin’ folks like our healthcare plan; in fact, 84% of us do. According to the Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, under the public option, 2 million people could lose their private healthcare coverage because 20% of states would no longer offer private health insurance plans in their marketplaces. We could also see a new annual payroll tax increase of $2,300. More money, less choice. No thanks, Theresa Greenfield.
Not only would the public option be disruptive to the healthcare system and our wallets, but also our economy, especially here in Iowa. Des Moines is a global hub for the insurance industry, with almost 17,000 Iowans employed by a health insurance company. Though albeit more slowly, the public option would devastate the metro by putting some of our largest employers of business. The public option would give the government incredible and unprecedented negotiating power and eventually take over the insurance market place, leaving thousands in Iowa and millions across the country without a job.
Theresa Greenfield is not for the “workin’ folks,” I know. However, to her credit, she seems to be workin’ hard for liberals like Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Cory Booker, who don’t have a clue about when rural Iowa needs.
