~Senator Jesse Green
February 10, 2023
Every Iowan desires quality, affordable, and accessible health care. Like with many issues we face in policy-making, there are generally many pieces to the puzzle that need adjusted or put together to bring about positive change. In Iowa we have been facing a shortage in doctors. We have one of the lowest numbers for physicians per capita in the nation, especially with our numbers of OB/GYN doctors. We are also facing the potential closure of more rural hospitals.
This week we addressed one hurdle to improving our medical environment, medical malpractice reform. We passed HF 161 that put a limit on the amount of non-economic damages a jury may award to a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case: $1 million for doctors, $2 million for hospitals. Limits on non-economic damages exist in 33 other states, including California and several states surrounding Iowa. There were a few other changes to this area of law. It redirected punitive damages to the plaintiff instead of the state, as current law dictates. It also created a medical error task force with the goal of identifying causes of errors and reducing their occurrences.
The most common argument against this reform was that we are placing a price on life and that we are infringing on a citizen’s right to a jury trial to decide these matters. My conclusion to these claims became that we give guidance for verdicts on many issues, why would we not give guidance on this matter to the judicial system as well? When there is so much emotion that gets wrapped up on an issue such as this one, I believe the legislature must put guardrails up to create some order. Also due to so many states around us that having caps, I found it hard to believe this was not affecting our ability to recruit doctors.
The next issue Iowans will hear a lot of conversation about from the capitol will be about property tax reform. Due to some of our high property taxes, Iowa ranks 40th in the nation. We can and must do better. In order to accomplish reform and lower our rates, I believe we must go back to the drawing board on how local governments put their budgets together and make sure that transparency is there for the taxpayer on what is happening with their rates. I feel that far too often the county assessors get the blame in these conversations. Their job is simply to assess the property, they do not spend the taxpayer money or set the levy rates. We have a great system in place in Iowa for how we determine our assessment rates and how the property tax owner can challenge those determinations. Instead, I hope our focus will be on diversifying the sources of property tax revenue and the budgeting process.
On other issues, I hope to drop a bill soon that will force a debate about property rights. Recently, I have received a couple of calls from constituents about the intrusiveness of drone activities on their farms. For most people this will never be an issue, but to livestock owners this has been a growing problem. In one case a farmer’s bull was severely hurt due to being run through a fence by a drone. This is unacceptable and something needs to be changed. I hope we can increase penalties on trespassing in general and also set more boundaries for drone activity.
This week we also held a subcommittee on SF29. This is one of my personal bills that would change how we handle transportation for open enrollment students. Currently, there must be an agreement reached between both the sending and receiving districts in order to allow buses to cross school district lines to pick up students. There have been growing number of complaints from parents that the only conversation that should take place is between them and the receiving district. This is not a new issue in the legislature, but since many constituents have been upset this year in our district, I felt the conversation about this school choice issue needs to happen again.
Thank you again for giving me the honor to serve you at the Capitol. Please feel free to reach out to me about whatever is on your mind at Jesse.green@legis.iowa.gov.
