Shortfalls won't curb Iowa's healthcare goals

Iowa is facing a shortfall in the next budget year that some think will top $600 million, and in response Gov. Chet Culver has ordered immediate spending cuts and called for reductions. However, neither Culver nor Democratic lawmakers who run the Legislature have done anything to tamp down ambitious and costly goals for healthcare in Iowa. At the top of the list was an effort to ensure healthcare to nearly all Iowa children by 2010.