Iowa roadways have been a dangerous place this year. Patrick Hoye, chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says traffic fatality numbers in Iowa had been declining, year-over-year, earlier this decade. Last year, 320 people were killed in traffic crashes in the state. “Unfortunately, we are already at 351 for this year with about a month-and-a-half to go,” Hoye said. “It’s scary, but we could be looking in the neighborhood of 380 to 390 fatalities if this trend would continue, which would be a sharp increase from a year ago.”

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of the year on Iowa’s roadways. A campaign is underway and runs through Sunday involving an increased law enforcement presence on Iowa’s highways and interstates. “Obviously, the things we’ll be looking for are impaired drivers, speeding vehicles, and people who are not properly buckled,” Hoye said.

Officials have been studying why there’s been such a sharp increase in traffic fatalities this year. Hoye notes roughly half of the traffic deaths in Iowa involved people who weren’t wearing a seatbelt and 30-percent of the fatal crashes were alcohol-related. Another reason for the spike in fatal crashes could involve the low gas prices we’ve had this year. “People are traveling more and anytime you have more vehicles traveling, there is the (potential) for an increase in crashes,” Hoye said.

Over the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday, five people were killed on Iowa roads.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s governor expects the Republican-led congress and President-elect Donald Trump to quickly repeal the Affordable Care Act and Branstad says it’s unclear what may happen to the 145-thousand low-income Iowans who now are covered by Medicaid because of the law. “That remains to be seen,” Branstad says. “I think we’ve got to see how that works.”

However, Branstad says those 145-thousand Iowans who are on Medicaid due to “ObamaCare” are unlikely to completely LOSE coverage. “I don’t think they should be worried,” Branstad says. “I think they should recognize that the Republican congress recognizes that ObamaCare is unaffordable and unsustainable and it needs to be replaced with something that’s workable and affordable for the American population and that’s what we’re going to work together to do.”

The Affordable Care Act offered states additional federal funds if more low-income citizens were enrolled in government-paid Medicaid. In Iowa, Branstad and legislators created an “Iowa Health and Wellness Plan.” Iowans with an annual income up to 133 percent of the poverty level have been eligible to enroll under the “Medicaid expansion” that’s part of “ObamaCare.” “I have confidence that the new Trump Administration and the congress will indeed, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, replace it with something that’s more sustainable,” Branstad says.

Branstad suggests “more flexibility” for how states run the Medicaid program can yield cost savings.

(Radio Iowa)