Axne Focuses 3rd District Rematch On Health Care

In-person campaigning has been pulled back because of the coronavirus pandemic, so it was telling that at one of the few events where Rep. Cindy Axne has met with voters face-to-face over the last few weeks, health care was the issue she wanted to talk about.

Axne and a handful of supporters spread out in a south Des Moines backyard on a sunny fall afternoon. They were invited to share stories about how insurance and pharmaceutical companies have created obstacles making it harder for them to access care for chronic medical conditions and disabilities.

“Let’s just talk insulin,” Axne said, recalling price increases for what was once a low-cost treatment for diabetes. “For some people making money is more important than your lives.”

Axne says preserving the Affordable Care Act is one of her top concerns, particularly provisions of the law that guarantee insurance coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

“Certainly as we’ve undertaken the most difficult time in our country with this pandemic, more people are developing preexisting conditions as a result of it,” Axne said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re addressing this for once and for all.”

Health care was the centerpiece of Axne’s 2018 campaign that unseated incumbent Republican David Young. This year, Young is back as Axne’s challenger and she is once again putting the issue on the forefront.

Axne said she supports expanding the ACA, known as Obamacare, by creating a public option that would allow people to purchase coverage through federal health programs. Critics of that idea say it would put private insurance companies at risk. The insurance industry is a major employer in the Des Moines area, which is part of the district, but Axne said more competition is needed.

“It forces competition, but it allows people to still have the opportunity to choose what they would like to do,” Axne said. “And if you want to go on Medicare or Medicaid, you can do that. If you want to keep your own insurance, you can do that.”

Returning to Obamacare vote

In 2018 and again in her 2020 campaign, Axne has accused David Young of voting to eliminate protections for preexisting conditions while in Congress.

Young has voted to repeal the ACA, which he has said takes a flawed approach to lowering health costs, but he also says he supports protections for preexisting conditions.

Adam Giaffoglione of West Des Moines, an Axne supporter who was at the backyard event, questions Young’s position on the issue. Giaffoglione has a son and a daughter with cystic fibrosis. When the Republican-controlled House brought up a bill to replace the ACA in 2017, he feared it would make coverage unaffordable for them.

“Our kids are okay right now but we definitely don’t want that to be another challenge for them when they do get older because they’re going to have plenty of challenges to deal with,” Giaffoglione said.

Grant Gerlock

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IPR

Young disputes the claim that the failed Republican bill, called the American Health Care Act, would have repealed protections for preexisting conditions.

The bill would not have allowed insurers to deny coverage, but it would have allowed companies in some states to charge more if a person’s coverage lapsed. Young said he backed a late amendment to help offset cost increases.

“I voiced my opinion that this isn't something that I could go forward with without those protections,” Young said. “I and a few my colleagues got together and we introduced an amendment that made sure that people with preexisting conditions weren’t discriminated against.”

Young now says he would reform the ACA to create more transparency around health care prices and to send premium subsidies to individuals instead of their insurance companies.

Reaching out to rural voters

According to Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford, the first reelection bid for new representatives like Axne often leads to a close outcome.

“Because we don't know if that first election was just a one-off or it really did indicate some political staying power,” Goldford said “It's always a tense situation unless you're in an overwhelmingly Republican or overwhelmingly Democratic district, which is not the case with the 3rd District in Iowa."

Democrats hold an advantage in party registration in three out of Iowa’s four Congressional districts, but of those three the margin in the 3rd District is the smallest.

Axne won the district by only two points in 2018 thanks to a large margin of victory in Polk County, but David Young won the other 15 counties in the district, which covers the southwestern part of the state.

Axne said she plans to compete for those counties in 2020. Since taking office she has appealed to rural constituents by working on issues like broadband and biofuels, and she said health care is a concern that cuts across the region.

“Health care will continue to be the number one issue Americans are facing unless we put pieces in place that start protecting people, start lowering the costs and make sure that they've got easy access at an affordable rate,” Axne said.

Axne believes the issue that put her in office two years ago will be the key to winning reelection on November 3.