Rob Sand Discusses Rural Health Care Crisis and OBGYN Shortages in Newton

DES MOINES, IA — Last week, candidate for governor Rob Sand visited Newton as part of his “One Year, One Iowa” tour to meet with local health care professionals and community members about concerns accessing health care. During the roundtable discussion, they talked about how the closure of MercyOne Newton’s labor and delivery unit in 2024 has left families without care and put more pressure on the only nearby hospital still delivering babies, Grinnell Regional Medical Center. Now, MercyOne Newton is one of two rural hospitals at risk of closure due to Medicaid cuts in the federal budget bill passed earlier this year, which every single member of Iowa’s federal delegation voted for. 

Participants also discussed the impacts of Iowa’s extreme 6-week abortion ban signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds, and the impact it has made on retaining and recruiting providers in Iowa, which already ranks last in the nation for the number of OBGYNs per capita. This is causing health care providers to leave Iowa after graduating from some of our top medical schools in the state, taking their talents to other states and leaving communities without access to care. 

Read more about Rob’s visit to Newton below:

Newton News: Rob Sand discusses rural healthcare issues, OBGYN challenges at roundtable

• Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand learned something troubling from health care providers at a recent roundtable. He learned there is only one hospital delivering babies in the area between Waterloo and Pella and between Des Moines and Iowa City.

• When [Dr. Abby Flannagan of Grinnell Regional Medical Center] was first hired about three years ago, doctors had delivered more than 100 babies every year; now, they are expected to deliver more than 300 babies by the end of 2025.

• However, rural healthcare issues extend beyond the lack of removal of vital services.

• “It’s not that we don’t have people that want to do this job — because there is — it’s we don’t have anyone to train. We don’t have anyone to pay them. It is only going to get worse because these older generations are going to retire and there’s no one coming up to replace them,” said Dr. Flannagan.

• “We were talking here to a female doctor who talked about her wife. And so who do we want here in Iowa? My answer is: everybody…” said Sand. “I think it’s important we not just talk about being a welcoming Iowa, but actually quit with the culture wars and just be focused on actually solving real problems for people.”

Daily Iowan: Iowa’s rural hospitals brace for impacts from Medicaid changes

• The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” makes drastic changes to the public health insurance program that could push Iowa medical providers that accept Medicaid to the brink, as they see an increase in uninsured patients, a decrease in Medicaid payments, and provisions allowing states to levy taxes on providers.

• All together, the changes spell a massive shift for the public insurance program that serves more than 70 million low-income and disabled Americans and over 500,000 Iowans. The changes are expected to reduce federal health care spending by $1 trillion over a decade — $9 billion just in Iowa — to pay for nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts enshrined in the reconciliation bill.

• This decrease in revenue could spell the end for some of Iowa’s rural hospitals, like Newton’s hospital, which has had negative patient care margins and overall margins for the past three out of four years, according to data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.

• In addition to decreasing revenue from patients covered by Medicaid, hospitals are wrangling with work requirements, more frequent eligibility redeterminations, and the expiration of enhanced ACA tax credits — all of which will increase uncompensated care at hospitals across Iowa, and hit rural hospitals the hardest.