Legislator rips up bill to end licensing for social workers, barbers, other professionals

A Republican state representative drew applause from dozens of citizens Monday for literally tearing up a bill from Gov. Terry Branstad that would have cancelled licensure requirements for social workers, mental health therapists, barbers and several other professions.

“I wanted to publicly declare that when it comes to licensure reform and the taking away of all the things that you all have done and that you have dedicated your lives for, as far I’m concerned, my opinion is this,” Rep. Bobby Kaufmann said as he ripped in half a cover sheet for House Study Bill 138.

Kaufmann was chairman of a subcommittee that considered the bill proposed by Branstad, who is a fellow Republican. The panel listened to an hour of mostly negative comments before declaring the bill dead. Kaufmann’s dramatic action drew whoops and applause from a hearing room packed with members of the professions in question.

The 82-page bill also had several other provisions, including a loosening of restrictions on new health-care facilities. But it was the proposal to withdraw professional licensing that drew heat.

Kaufmann said he received more than 3,600 emails about the bill, almost all of them in opposition. “I heard about it at McDonald’s, at the grocery store, at Casey’s, while I was getting my hair cut, and at Wal-Mart,” Kaufmann said. “...There is zero appetite in this state for removing licensure. There is zero appetite for that to reappear in an amendment or to reappear in any sort of other bill the rest of the session."

Rep. Mary Mascher, an Iowa City Democrat who served on the subcommittee, noted that the only person who voiced any support Monday for ending the licensure requirements was a lobbyist for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. “You need to be watching very carefully, because they’re controlling a whole lot of what goes in our state right now,” she said of the group, which is funded in part by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. “It should put the fear of God into all of us, because they’ve got the governor’s ear.”

Mascher said she was sorry so many professionals had to take time off from work Monday to testify against the bill. “We should have killed it before it ever got to this point,” she said.

The bill would have substituted undefined “registration” for formal licensure for dietitians, athletic trainers, funeral directors, mental health counselors, marital therapists, social workers, speech pathologists and audiologists. It would have ended all licensure requirements for respiratory therapists, massage therapists, hearing-aid specialists, barbers and interior designers.

Professionals told legislators Monday that the licensure requirements ensure proper training and oversight. The licenses also are required by many public and private insurance plans that pay for health-care services, they said.

“It’s a safeguard for the public,” said Kenneth Cameron, a mental health counselor for Aspire Counseling Center in Des Moines. Without licenses, he said, counselors would be laughed at if they tried to submit bills to insurance companies. “Are you kidding me? It would never happen,” he said, drawing chuckles from the crowd.

After the meeting, Branstad’s spokesman suggested the governor’s not giving up on the idea. The spokesman, Ben Hammes, noted Branstad had spoken in his Condition of the State address about Iowa requiring a third of its work force to have licenses, which he said is the highest level in the nation. “We felt it was time to have an initial conversation about licensing reform, while keeping the health and safety of Iowans the first priority,” Hammes said in an email to the Register. “Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds look forward to having those conversations about legislator's ideas on licensing reform in the weeks ahead.”

Kaufmann said afterward that the Legislature would consider other parts of the bill. Among them is a proposal to ease requirements on proposed health-care facilities. Such proposals now need a “certificate of need” to show they wouldn’t duplicate current facilities. Supporters say the system helps prevent wasteful health-care projects. Critics, including the governor, say the process has become a way for existing facilities to protect themselves from competition. The bill would specifically have exempted mental-health facilities from requiring permits. That was in response to the repeated blocking of a proposed psychiatric hospital in Bettendorf, which current hospitals say is unnecessary. Kaufmann said a bill on that subject could still pass this session.