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The Dickey Dispatch
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
(May 2, 2025) Happy Friday District 44,
Today is the last official day of the session, but we are headed to overtime because a budget has not been agreed to between the House, Senate, and the Governor. The House continues to have a budget that is $36 million more than what the Senate and Governor has. The key to being the most financially responsible state and being able to return more money to you in lowering your taxes, is having a fiscally responsible budget and not just agreeing to spend money so we can close session.
Pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform has been a big topic around the legislature for several years. In the past couple years the legislature has passed legislation to start bringing more transparency to such a complex system and help protect Iowans. This week the Senate passed Senate File 383, implementing additional protections for Iowa patients, cost-saving measures, and practices to help rural pharmacies which are the backbone of Iowa health care.
Senate File 383 enacts a series of regulations on PBMs, including prohibiting them from restricting patients from using the pharmacy of THEIR CHOICE and designating a prescription drug as a specialty drug to prevent or limit access to the drug by a patient. This bill also tells PBMs they cannot require a patient to solely use a mail order pharmacy and ensures 100 percent of all rebates received by a PBM are passed on to the health carrier or the plan sponsor for the purpose of reducing premiums. Another major provision fixes PBM reimbursement practices, which made a pharmacy operate at a loss when dispensing a prescription, by setting a dispensing fee to be paid to certain retail pharmacies in Iowa. Lastly, we provide a platform for pharmacists and pharmacies to directly appeal any matter to the PBM to eliminate red tape in the system. This bill is GREAT for Iowa as it supports our rural pharmacies and constituents.
When I entered the Senate five years ago, a priority of mine was improving things for our VOLUNTEER firefighters, reserve officers, and EMS volunteers. 93% of our firefighters in Iowa are VOLUNTEERS! Think about that for a minute. There are over 13,000 Iowans who risk their lives every day to protect your family and they do it for free! One of the bills I have worked on for the past five years, SF 635, finally passed this week in the Senate and hopefully will be debated on in the House next week. SF 635 creates a new property tax program for qualified volunteer emergency services providers whose home is in the service area they volunteer. The volunteer would be able to request abatement of property taxes and special assessments on their home at an amount equal to 10% of all such taxes, but not to exceed $500. The taxing entities (schools, county services, etc.…) would then be allowed to choose if they want to participate in the program or not (which would be a pretty good way to gauge how much they appreciate all of the volunteers that protect their counties). This is program is done locally and is a nice way to give back to those who serve our communities without being paid.
As always it is a pleasure representing you at the Iowa Senate. I am lucky to come from such a GREAT community and am blessed to be able to represent you.
