Rob Sand Visits UnityPoint Allen Hospital to Discuss Growing Crisis in Iowa’s Emergency Departments Amid Cuts to Medicaid

WATERLOO, IA – This morning, candidate for governor Rob Sand visited UnityPoint Allen Hospital’s Emergency Department in Waterloo, where he met with frontline health care professionals to hear directly about the growing strain on Iowa’s health care system and the critical impact on emergency departments. 

Sand toured the facility’s emergency department with Rachael Lindaman, the emergency department manager, and Dr. Joseph Kwofie, an internal medicine physician. Throughout the tour, they discussed how the recent Medicaid cuts and passage of the budget bill are intensifying pressures on hospitals — especially rural facilities — that are already grappling with staffing shortages and resource limitations. 

Just recently, every member of Iowa’s federal delegation voted for the bill that kicks over 106,700 Iowans off of their health care and puts rural hospitals at serious risk. UnityPoint Health System, one of Iowa’s largest hospital systems, expects to lose $150 million in revenue as a result of the recently passed budget bill.