Meeting Public Comments

Heather Sievers [Advocates for Iowa's Children]

I assume this will move forward as all of the bills continue to do, but if you do move this, please make amendments to the resource maximums to allow people with disabilities and their caregivers to work by eliminating the maximum resource requirements or significantly increasing them to align with the hours of work requirements of 20 hours a week. This SF 599 continues to create impossible resource maximums, while requiring people with disabilities who want to be employed (and caregivers) to meet the 20 hours a week work requirements to maintain health insurance. How can people work 20 hours a week but remain within the strict poverty level requirements requiring that resources cannot exceed $10,000 for an individual or $21,000 for a couple. If people are required to work 20 hours a week, this will automatically push someone over the $10,000 maximum and subsequently they will lose their Medicaid and be forced back out of the workforce. This will not lead to reductions in demand on Medicaid programs, nor will it make sure all people who are able can support the workforce. This continues to support poverty cycles in our state and will further drive unemployment rates during a workforce crisis in the state of Iowa. This also negatively impacts caregivers who are required to take care of their children or family member over six years of age because there are no caregiver services available in this state, especially as people move into adulthood. I can barely get my daughter with disabilities into child or daycare settings because they are unable to "care" for her special needs (even though she is higher functioning). They reject accepting her into day care. There are no respite services even when people finally get on the Waivers that provide it, and respite services, even if there was access to support, cannot be used so caregivers or parents can work. Family caregivers are forced to stay home, and they will also lose their Medicaid critical to sustaining life. Please support Iowa's families. Please make amendments before passing this bill.

Anita Christensen

I oppose SF599. Please do not move it forward.

Stacey Huffman

Vote no, this bill continues to put barriers in front of peopleWith disabilities and thier families. It keeps them in poverty. In Iowa lets think about the health and wellbeing of our people. This bill is unjust.

Katie Anderson

I suppose SF 599 It will hurt people who truly have disabilities and cant work. Find another way to determine if people are capable of working rather than putting those with disabilities at risk of losing healthcare coverage. Do something that helps Iowans.

Paige Chickering

I encourage you to vote NO on HF 599. This bill has the potential to expand more strict work requirements for SNAP, creating costly bureaucracy and red tape that will inadvertently kick working families off of their benefits. We are seeing levels of food insecurity in Iowa we have not seen in years. Food banks are struggling to keep their shelves stocked and meet the extremely high level of need in their communities. This is a time when we need to be supporting critical nutrition and hunger prevention programs like SNAP not making them more difficult to access and more costly for Iowan taxpayers.