SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
March 25, 2025
Sullivan’s Salvos 3/27/25
In this edition:
*Opening Day!
*Trans Day of Visibility
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
*Betty Sass
*Medicaid
*Did You Know?
*Opening Day!
The Cubs and Dodgers already played two games in Japan, but for everyone else, March 27 is Opening Day! Even if one is not a baseball fan, there is a wonderful rebirth that happens every year with Opening Day. Like so many things we associate with spring, a new baseball season is a fresh start. Every team is 0-0, with an opportunity to do great things. Once again, there is hope. And we all need that!
I hope your team (however you wish to define it!) has a “dream season” this summer!
*Trans Day of Visibility
There is a rally to note Trans Day of Visibility on Monday, March 31 from 4:00 - 8:00 PM at College Green Park. There will be music, speakers, and other activities. This is a great opportunity to show your support!
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
The Johnson County Democratic Party is holding our Annual Hall of Fame Awards on Saturday, May 10 at 7pm at the Radisson in Coralville. 2025 marks the 15th consecutive year that the Johnson County Democratic Party has held a separate Hall of Fame event.
Please join us for coffee, desserts, and plenty of old war stories! A cash bar will be available.
The Hall of Fame inductees for 2025 are: Roger Mills, Peter Hansen, Paul Deaton, and Bill Gerhard. We hope you can join us in recognizing this remarkable group!
Tickets are available for a $35 suggested donation. People who cannot afford that amount should still feel welcome. Sponsorships are available.
*Betty Sass
You may occasionally see notices of public events or meetings that are described as being in the “Betty Sass Room” at the County Administration Building. And every time I see that, I smile. Because I was a big fan of Betty Sass!
Here is some background: Betty Sass went to work for Johnson County as a 19-year-old in 1952. She was hired to work in the Treasurer’s Office due to her very legible handwriting. Betty retired as a Deputy Treasurer in 2013 -61 years later!
The Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) looked, and they were not able to find a record of anyone EVER working longer for ANY county!
To add some perspective – Johnson County has had some employees retire while in their late 50s. Those retirees could have been born, grown up, gone to work, and retired all during Betty’s tenure with the County!
While Betty’s years of service boggle the mind, honoring her by naming a room after her was not just about quantity. It was even more about quality. Betty Sass was always a model employee and an outstanding boss. Despite working in an office that receives many complaints, Betty’s attitude and outlook were the best I’ve ever seen! Betty was not just our longest serving employee – she was probably our finest employee.
Betty once told me the best improvements over her tenure were: 1.) Typewriters; 2.) Air conditioning; 3.) The indoor smoking ban. Longevity offers very interesting perspectives!
I like the idea of naming things for people. I recognize that there are occasions where this turns out badly. In those cases, I say just rename the thing. There are many really good people out there who deserve similar honors. I am not afraid of acting accordingly.
Meanwhile, I hope you all learned a little bit about a great person!
*Medicaid
I searched the word “Medicaid” in my archive of Salvos. (Salvos started in late 2004, but I’m not sure I still have anything before 2009.) I was shocked to find how much I have written on the topic - tens of thousands of words over the years.
Why have I written so much about Medicaid? For one, you write what you know. I used to work in the Iowa Medicaid program. Even though that was several years ago, I know Iowa Medicaid quite well. That is why the Republican schemes to cut the program upsets me so much.
The bigger reason is that people who use Medicaid are the very reason I ran for office in the first place. It was literally what made me choose this career. I wanted to – and still want to – help the poorest among us.
Before I go any further, let’s give a quick primer on Medicaid. Medicaid (often referred to as Title 19) is the federal program that provides government health insurance to our poorest residents. Medicaid was passed in 1965 as an addition to the Social Security Act, a key component in President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty”.
Medicaid is about to celebrate its’ 60th birthday. Medicaid and Medicare were among the greatest achievements in the history of our great nation. Health care for the poor… we have been called to provide this at least since Jesus walked the earth. The US finally got around to it in 1965.
While the vast majority of the funding for Medicaid is federal, each state pays a portion based upon the relative wealth of that state. Connecticut pays the most, Mississippi the least. Iowa is in the middle when it comes to relative wealth; in fact, our state match just went up because of the recent good years enjoyed by the ag industry. Iowa pays a 37% match for regular Medicaid, and a 10% match on the Medicaid expansion that began in 2013 under President Obama.
Over time, states have argued for and received greater flexibility in designing state Medicaid programs. This is where the managed care concept began, and how it is spreading to states with Republican governors. Unfortunately, most of these state “experiments” with Medicaid do not improve outcomes. In fairness, over the years, Medicaid has become a bigger and bigger piece of each state’s budget.
While many conservatives will try to tell you Medicaid has “not worked,” the reality is a very different story. In fact, 80 million Americans received some type of Medicaid service last year, almost 1 in 4. These services were provided at an average cost lower than private insurance, and at an average administrative cost MUCH lower than private insurance.
It is important to understand who is on Medicaid. Medicaid serves the most vulnerable members of our society. First, you must be incredibly poor. Then you need to fit a second category of need. For example, most Medicaid recipients are children. The next biggest group is people living in nursing homes. The third largest group is people with significant disabilities. These are people whose health can easily be negatively affected.
The state has steadily made Medicaid worse for Iowans, especially Governor Reynolds’ foray into managed care. Managed care companies rarely root out waste or fraud. They take an easier route. They simply cap services, and let the rest of the healthcare system sort it out. The managed care companies make their millions, and patients and providers fight over what is left. In my opinion, managed care is nothing more than a transfer of public tax dollars to private companies who are GUARANTEED to hurt the poor. Rather than being encouraged, managed care by private companies should be illegal. But that is not the environment in which we live.
Has managed care improved things? No, it has not. Unless you own one of the firms that has sucked millions of our tax dollars from our poorest residents. If you own one of those, you did fine.
This “experiment” is not working, just as experts warned. The Republicans in the Legislature not only put money ahead of people – they do that several times every day. But this time, they chose to pick on the weakest, poorest, least able to fight back. It is simply deplorable.
Medicaid really, truly serves our most vulnerable citizens. Without this help, these people die. That is not made up. It is real.
President Trump and Republicans in the US Legislature have voted to give millions of our tax dollars away in tax cuts for the wealthy while poor Iowans get sicker and die. You may call that hyperbole, but I disagree. The fact is, when Medicaid is cut, poor people get sicker and die more quickly. It is proven. Any ignorance here is willful ignorance. They voted to hurt poor people. Period. What they voted for was evil.
Evil is a strong word. But what word would you use to describe someone who took away nursing home care from a sick elderly woman? What word would you use to describe someone who kept a sick baby from getting tubes in her ears? What word would you use to describe someone who left a poor man with an IQ of 40 on the street to eat from the trashcans? If you knowingly voted to make this happen? I call it evil.
Republicans may not get their just desserts electorally. They may go on to win many more elections. But I am convinced that someday they will be judged harshly. And I imagine it will be harsher than anything handed down by voters.
*DID YOU KNOW? Iowa City native Tom Cech won the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the catalytic properties of RNA.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 6:13 PM
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