The Iowa Senate was busy last week passing a bunch of bills related to healthcare.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says one of the more important pieces of legislation that they passed 49-0 was improving mental health care in the state. The bill would remove the statewide sub-acute bed cap, which Behn believes will help save on local resources, from hospitals to law enforcement.

“It’s going to lower the cost because you literally had sheriffs and deputies standing around that could be doing other things and instead were babysitting and I don’t really believe that’s what their mission statement was, was to babysit those that could’ve been taken care of in a better facility and in a better setting.”

Another bill the Senate passed was House File 2356 which allows someone to enter a primary care contract. Behn says a family could sign a contract with a primary care physician for a certain number of services, while also still being required to carry a catastrophic coverage plan for unforeseen incidents. Behn likes the bill because it allows for another healthcare option.

“I’ve heard individuals tell me that they are paying anywhere from $18,000, to $20,000, to $25,000 a year for insurance policies. That is so prohibitively high that there are people that are just saying, ‘We can’t afford that.’ And so they just don’t get insurance.”

Finally, another bill would prohibit an insurance company from discriminating between coverage for benefits for regular healthcare that are provided via telehealth.

Behn believes each of the bills will help improve overall healthcare in Iowa.