Report: Farm Bureau’s ‘skinny’ health plan may hurt farmers
The Iowa Farm Bureau’s tailored health insurance plans might be harmful to the state’s insurance market and to the farmers the plans are meant to cover, according to a national analysis on “skinny” health insurance, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported. The analysis, released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive research center, said that states enabling such plans with limited coverage options are poor proposals that “would do more harm than good” for farmers and farm workers who lack health insurance coverage. About 9 percent of Iowa farmers and farm workers — approximately 4,680 individuals — are uninsured, and of those, 57 percent have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $48,000 for a family of four.