Greetings,

Thank you for your advocacy during the 2009 Session of the Iowa Legislature. Your voice made a difference in this turbulent time. Many difficult decisions were made by your representatives to balance the budget. Lutheran Services in Iowa is grateful to you for your support and to our representatives for choosing to put Iowa’s most vulnerable children and families first.

LSI Talking Points and Outcomes

FIP Basic Grants

Lutheran Services in Iowa urges adjusting the Family Investment Program Basic Grants to the most vulnerable of Iowa children and families by at least 10% in FY 2010.

For the 21^st year in a row, Iowa’s Family Investment Program basic grants were not increased. This adjustment is still desperately needed by families facing poverty. LSI had advocated that an increase to FIP be part of any State stimulus package, but no such package was created other than for capital appropriations and infrastructure needs.

This was a difficult budget year to see an increase in this program. However, LSI will continue to advocate strongly for adjustments to FIP in the next Session. An increase in the FIP program is essential to assisting families out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency. 

HOPES and Early Childhood

Lutheran Services in Iowa supports maintaining and expanding the Healthy Opportunities for Parents to Experience Success (HOPES)/Healthy Families Iowa Program in FY 2010.

Empowerment funding for the HOPES program was initially cut by 13%, but thankfully this figure was changed and the cut to this funding was minimal. Even though there was still a small cut in the state funding of this important program, LSI considers this a success during a year when many programs funded through Empowerment were significantly reduced.

Other positive news for early childhood services came as well. No cut was made to the Empowerment funding for early childhood programs grants.

While we consider this year a success due to the extremely difficult economic times, our concern remains that any future cuts will affect important programs that educate young mothers and prevent childhood abuse and neglect. We will continue to advocate for maintaining and expanding the HOPES and other early childhood programs.

Immigration/Refugee Services

Lutheran Services in Iowa supports growing Iowa as a welcoming community to persons of race, ethnicity, gender or faith.

No major immigration reforms were moved on in this session. However, one important step was included in the expansion of HAWK-I, Iowa’s health coverage plan for uninsured and underinsured children. The expansion of this program requires the coverage of children of legal immigrants under 5, if federal matching funds are available. Undocumented children were not included in this expansion.

Other legislation

Provider Rates

The leaders of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee made it a priority throughout the Session to hold harmless rates to providers of children and family services. NO rates were reduced in any of these service lines. LSI will continue to advocate for increases in these rates, but in a budget year such as this we can count this as a victory.

HAWK-I and Medicaid expansion

The expansion of HAWK-I and Medicaid was a major win for children and Iowa human services. Not only did it include the provision for children of legal immigrants, it also requires DHS to cover children under 19 years of age who meet income eligibility requirements for Medicaid when there is a federal match, and to provide continuous coverage under HAWK-I when there is a federal match.

Insurance for children in PMIC residential care

A bill was introduced that would close a loophole that allows insurance companies to deny coverage for children admitted to Psychiatric Medical Institute for Children (PMIC) residential services. This would have required insurance companies to cover the most mentally ill children who receive services at a PMIC facility, such as LSI’s Beloit and Bremwood campuses. Unfortunately this bill did not pass despite advocacy from LSI employees and other residential service providers.

However, the language “medically necessary” was placed into the Standings Bill. This is a step in the right direction to ensure these children get the coverage they need and may determine whether or not families choose to seek out the help they need and find in PMIC residential services.

Federal Advocacy

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This federal economic recovery package that was passed early this year has made a significant impact on Iowa and the state’s human services. LSI alerted you specifically to the $87 billion for the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP or Medicaid). The passing and signing of this bill made it possible for states, like Iowa, who faced budget crises and were forced to cut health care funding to supplement these programs with federal dollars. Specifically, the four percent reduction of Medicaid in Iowa was covered by the dollars this stimulus package created.

Thank you

Thank you again for being part of Lutheran Services in Iowa’s network of committed advocates. Your voice makes a difference for tens of thousands of Iowa’s most vulnerable children, families and individuals. You make it possible for LSI to continue to provide life changing services. Also, please make sure to thank your representatives for their work in providing all Iowans with a social “safety net” during these extremely difficult times.

We look forward to your continued advocacy during the next Session!

Visit LSI's advocacy web page to see more advocacy information.