(Des Moines, Iowa) – Southwest Iowa Republican Representative Tom Moore, from Griswold, says this third week of the legislative session saw a huge uptick in committee and sub-committee work. Moore, who represents District 21, says the Human Resources Committee…

• Passed three House Study Bills (HSB’s) he says will continue an attempt to put tools in the tool belt of child care providers by allowing the negotiating of pricing between CCA recipients and providers, increasing 2-year-old ratios by 1 child and 3-year-old ratios by 2 children thus providing more child care slots in Iowa, and allowing 16 and 17 year-olds to provide childcare for school-age children.
• House File 210, he says, allows for an individual on who is on a ventilator the “right-to-try” an off label use of a drug.

Moore said also, the week was packed full of Sub-committee meetings. Among the list of bills he worked on throughout week, was

• A bill for an act relating to the adoption and use of certain general permits issued by the department of natural resources.
• A bill for an act relating to the release of nursing facility reimbursement rates under the Medicaid program.
• A bill for an act relating to the membership, procedures, and functions of the Iowa council on homelessness.
• A bill for an act relating to the beginning date of the school calendar for school districts and accredited nonpublic schools.
• A bill for an act relating to the composition of a county zoning commission.

Moore says also, this week, he chaired a sub-committee for a bill (House File 656) that Moore has worked on for five years. The basic premise of this bill is that once a patient is stable on a medication their insurance company can’t switch them to a similar but often less expensive drug. This doesn’t happen often, he says, but when it does the outcome can have grave circumstances for the patient. The major issue comes from the insurance industry who says it hampers their ability to control costs. Moore says “For me it comes down to where our priorities lie, with the costs and profits of the insurance companies or the care of the individual patient.”

After working on this for so long, Moore says it was great to see House File 656 pass both sub-committee and the Human Resources committee unanimously. He said also, “It will be exciting to continue working on this as it moves to the House Floor and eventually through the Senate.”

Representative Moore can be reached for questions and comments at tom.moore@legis.iowa.gov and (712) 789-9954.