Breckenridge to prioritize children’s mental health funding, oversight of MCOs

Editor’s note: This is the first of four articles detailing the points of interest and goals of local legislators representing Jasper County as they move into the next legislative session.

As he enters the next legislative session, Iowa State Rep. Wes Breckenridge, D-Newton, has prioritized maintaining oversight of managed care organizations (MCOs), continuing to bolster businesses to find and train the future workforce and following through with the implementations of children’s mental health legislation introduced last year.

Representing Iowa House District 29, Breckenridge is involved in a number of standing committees, including: administration and rules, agriculture, natural resources and veterans affairs. He is also a ranking member of the Public Safety Committee. He serves on the Capital Projects Committee and Legislative Council and works alongside the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy Council and Investing in Rural Iowa Task Force.

Last year, the legislator had similar goals to his 2020 priorities. Breckenridge had fixated his interests on a sustainable health care system, stable mental health services and boosting the economy through a skilled workforce. Breckenridge said there is still work to do on those three items.

“When I look at those three we talked about last year, there was some progress in a forward momentum, but not to the level that we need to see to truly reach the people we need to be reaching for assistance and health,” he said.

Children’s mental health

Now that steps have been taken to introduce Iowans to a statewide children’s mental health system, Breckenridge said what’s next is properly implementing the system and finding adequate funding. Iowa’s regions, he said, have been working hard to get the structure put together. Funding is a primary concern, since the state needs to be able to provide sustainable services in both adult and children’s mental health.

“What are we going to do to fund the children’s mental health system? What does that look like, the implementation of the legislation that we passed? So that’s going to be crucial with the mental health component,” Breckenridge said.

Healthcare and MCOs

When Breckenridge gets concerns calls from constituents about healthcare, he said the No. 1 thing they bring up is “some of the failures of the privatized Medicaid system.” He suggested healthcare issues are firmly connected with his other goals. To keep employees, he argued, businesses need a workforce that can be provided with proper benefits. Children’s mental health system needs oversight as well. Costs are rising, which is also a continued concern for voters.

“I think when we look at the connection between the healthcare and the associated costs that go with healthcare, everyone is seeing an increase in their premiums, their out-of-pocket max deductibles — and so all those are intertwined,” Breckenridge said. “If we’re not meeting the needs of individuals that need the systems that we have — Medicare and Medicaid — then it falls back on the private sector, who is then raising rates to make ends meet.”

This can inevitably lead to the closing of local providers, sometimes preventing people from obtaining services they need. Following the privatization of Iowa’s healthcare system, Breckenridge said the dwindling number of MCOs is making the situation a bit more challenging to hold them accountable to some extent.

“One of the things that we must do is to make sure that we have proper oversight in the managed care organizations,” Breckenridge said. “I refer to oversight as ‘boots on the ground.’ That oversight will ensure that claims that are being denied and rejected or the reimbursement rates that are being lowered are done appropriately.”

Workforce development/broadband infrastructure

Businesses reinvest in their community, Breckenridge said, which is critical to the longevity and economy of Iowa’s towns. To uplift skilled employees, Breckenridge looks at what legislators can do to help those local businesses to find and train the future workforce, especially from the education standpoint. Apprenticeships and internships, in particular, will help immensely, he said.

Another way to bolster Iowa’s workforce, Breckenridge suggested, is by creating strong broadband infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. High-speed internet capabilities can highly benefit schools, businesses and agriculture in rural areas. Costs are a major roadblock though.

“If I can make high-speed broadband available to our rural communities — even make them available here in Jasper County — at an affordable rate, the high school students can have accessibility to garner knowledge and access materials, the college students are going to be able to do that,” Breckenridge said. “Your police and fire will have connectivity to their in-care computers, which are going to be faster and better for emergency management stuff.”

Affordable rural broadband allows businesses to be able to reach out to a market a lot faster and easier, Breckenridge added. The topic of broadband infrastructure in rural communities continues to see more and more interest in the past few years. If the infrastructure is there, small town Iowans “can access and gain the same information (and) connectivity for educational purposes as a city person.”

Breckenridge said, “We’re an agricultural community. If you stop to thing how many rural area farmers can utilize broadband for GPS and the stuff that they do with the new technologies in farming today, and when they don’t have that it makes it that much more challenging for them to maybe compete with those farmers that may live near big city hubs that have enough outreach of connectivity.”

E-cigarettes and vaping

For the past year, more and more headlines are have been devoted to those effected by e-cigarettes usage, particularly children. Breckenridge anticipates there will be some type of legislation geared toward vaping regulations in the state.

“I think that’s something that will have a very worthy discussion moving forward,” Breckenridge said. “How do we move forward to address some of the issues and health concerns we have with that?”

Breckenridge said he’s had conversations with colleagues “across the aisle” and has noticed there is a “definite need to look at what that age limit is.” He argued that some models of e-cigarettes could be marketed to younger people.

“I think we need to take a hard look at not only the age but I also think we need to look at the oils, the cartridges and some of the very serious health effects that comes along with those,” he said. “Because what I am hearing so far as the studies progress is sometimes it’s more the oils and cartridges — they don’t know the impacts of those compared to the device itself.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com