Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) answers questions from the audience Tuesday in Washington, here a woman holds a sign while Ernst talks about health care and the Affordable Care Act. Photo by Sally Y. Hart
Over 100 people gathered for a town hall meeting with Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in Washington Tuesday.
The Washington Area Performing Arts and Events Center held the forum that covered a variety of topics including tax reform, Russia, trade, immigration, campaign finance, and health care, both access to care and cost of insurance. When talking about her stance on the Affordable Care Act Ernst was met with calls of “Fix it!” from the audience, she said, “So we know we have to make improvements. I voted three times to repeal and replace Obamacare; that failed on the floor of the Senate. Now some of you may disagree, but then you tell me how a family can afford that type of insurance. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to go back and we are going to hopefully address at least the individual insurance market. Now I was really pleased because Senator Lamar Alexander (R) of Tennessee has agreed, and Patty Murray (D) of Washington, it’ll be a bipartisan group of senators who are working on a solution for the individual insurance market.”
Over a quarter of Washington County residents are eligible for Medicaid and 5,835 of those people were served as of July 31st.
Regardless of the topic, Ernst said her goal is to work for the best of Iowans.
One bipartisan piece of legislation regarding sanctions was also discussed and met with applause, “The sanctions bill that we had, and I think this is important because we do have a world of unfriendlies out there, among those is Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and we did vote in a bipartisan manner to approve the sanctions. Russia is not our friend, I stand by that. We need to show everyone that we are very serious about any interference they might have whether it is in our country, whether it is in other countries. Which a number of our allies have had the same types of experiences with Russian interference.
Ernst concluded the hour-long event by thanking those in attendance for a civil conversation.
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