Governor Reynolds signed 21 bills into law last week, including a bill that requires restoration of farm ground in areas where utility companies are installing power lines. Representative Shannon Latham of Sheffield says the law protects rural landowners in areas where large scale, high voltage transmission lines are being installed.
The law is written to go into effect retroactively, so it applies to a transmission line project that started two years ago. The electric grid operator for the Midwest is projected to spend 22 BILLION dollars extending high-voltage power lines through nine Midwest states, including Iowa.
A new state law that goes into effect July 1st will require health insurance companies to cover referrals made by a doctor who’s not on the company’s list of network physicians. Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines, who’s a doctor, says it’s in response to the growing number of “direct primary care” plans in the US and Iowa where people pay a monthly fee.
Baeth says the bill addresses the problem when one of these general practice doctors determines a patient needs something like an MRI or to see a specialist — and the patient’s traditional insurance won’t pay for the referral.
The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously.
