gave approval to the governor this week. but they've bumped back the deadline to april 1st. this change affects 560,000 people. that's one in five iowans who are on medicaid right now. now a statement from governor branstad explains why they're doing this. quote iowa is ready for a new system that provides access through more doctors and will create a more sustainable medicaid program for taxpayers. so now all the people who didn't want this to happen in the first place are turning their attention to another goal. they wanna make sure there's proper oversight on the new way medicaid will be run. on wednesday, a senate subcommittee that's looking at how to oversee the program had a packed house in its meeting room. dozens testifying about their concerns including the fact that the changes are happening so quickly. (background talking) >>sabrina: as karen muters talks to one of her three kids she brought with her to the capitol, she has one thing on her mind. >>karen: there isn't anyone that has been able to give us concrete answers.

kids who are all medicaid recipients. some live in group homes, others with her. it's a lot to juggle and now everything's going to change. >>karen: it is really a complicated system for them now. >>sabrina: while she doesn't necessarily like the change, she realizes it's inevitable. so now she has one goal. that's to get everyone to the table to make sure it works. >>karen: we have to have represented the beneficiaries. we need to have parents. we need to have the providers. >>sabrina: that's what father jeff edberg is here to do as well. >>jeff: from what the mcl said, they have all the cards and my son's welfare in their hands. >>sabrina: his son is severely disabled also living in a group home. >>jeff: but he's a beautiful boy and he's got a great smile and good speech. limited. he's got about 130 words. and, but we understand each other perfectly. >>sabrina: that's what this whole group is here doing today.

what seems to be party politics >>sabrina: because not having health care isn't an option. (background talking) >>sabrina: now the organizer of some of these medicaid rallies at the capitol is a face you'll recognize, former iowa governor chet culver. he's back after years out of politics since he lost his reelection bid to governor terry branstad back in 2010. he's also been holding town hall meetings about the medicaid changeover for the last few weeks. governor chet culver joins us now. governor culver, thank you so much for being here. >>mr. culver: great to be here. >>sabrina: talk to us, what have you been up to? we haven't really seen you around here in these parts very much lately. >>mr. culver: well, i've been busy raising kids. i have a 13-year old son and soon to be 15-year old daughter and very proud of both of them. and, uh, love going to their swim meets. and i'm coaching my son's basketball team so life is good. >>sabrina: yeah, life is a little bit more normal i would imagine. >>mr. culver: it is. although recently things have kind of picked up a little bit in terms of the policy issue >>sabrina: yeah. >mr. culver: that i'm involved in.

haven't really, like we said, been in the public eye much since 2011 or, talk to me a little bit about why you've decided to come back into the public eye. >>mr. culver: sure. >>sabrina: i mean, are you makin' a run for another office? >>mr. culver: no. (chuckling) >>mr. culver: i'm doing this as a, as a concerned citizen. >>sabrina: okay. >>mr. culver: the medicaid privatization effort that is underway in iowa is arguably one of the most important issues that our state has dealt with in 50 years. 560,000 iowans are going to be impacted. that's how many medicaid beneficiaries we have. so i've watched this unfold and i decided to get involved to, to volunteer to help. i'm leading a coalition. we're calling ourselves aim. advocates for iowa medicaid. and i've had 5 town hall, hall meetings across the state hearing directly from medicaid beneficiaries and their families about concerns with the new

um, rewarding to get out there and, and help people have a voice. that's really all that we want on this issue. we want openness. we want transparency, accountability. and most importantly we want the people to be heard especially those that will be impacted by this privatization effort. >>sabrina: now hawkeye and behavioral health were alreadyun, managed care programs >>mr. culver: sure. >>sabrina: under your watch when you were governor. so, i mean, how do you, do you not like managed care or do you not like the rollout? what, what's the problem? >>mr. culver: well, the problem is and this is, i'm glad you raised that question. 40 states including iowa have a part of their medicaid program run privately. >>sabrina: mmhmm. >>mr. culver: in iowa, as you've said in the past, we've had different components of the program handled privately. and that public/private partnership has worked very well. but it's misleading to say that 40 states have privatized their medicaid

one of only five states that's privatized the entire program affecting 560,000 people. right now the state runs our current medicaid program. the other reason i'm speaking out is because we do it very efficiently. in fact, the iowa medicaid system that we had in the past was number one in the nation, certainly recognized as being one of the best. for example, we currently are paying only 4% of our administrative cost uh, on overhead or 4% of the whole program on administrative cost. the, under the new plan that will go to 12 to 14 percent. so we're gonna nearly quadruple the administrative cost. we've really worked hard to save taxpayer money and we're concerned that we're, we're pulling out the rug from underneath a program that is actually meeting the needs of 560,000 iowans. >>sabrina: but i do have some

in, back from 2011 for fiscal year 2012 was that they were gonna be 600 million dollars in the hole for paying for medicaid. >>mr. culver: well, you know, >>sabrina: so that doesn't sound that efficient if you ask me. >>mr. culver: actually what we've done, we've expanded the medicaid roles. under the, uh, uh, affordable care act iowa actually added 150,000 medicaid beneficiaries to the roles. so the numbers are gonna, the cost then is going to increase. but that's a good thing. that was a bipartisan agreent to add 150,000 people. so don't let the statistics fool you. >>sabrina: i mean, cms approved that it's happening april 1st. >>mr. culver: well, it was supposed to happen january 1st. there have been so many concerns, so many voices that have been heard, we've had three delays. so we don't know really what's happening. alls we, we know for sure that there continue to be a lot of

gentleman in cedar rapids, iowa for example. his daughter has down's syndrome. she is in a nur-, full-time care facility in marion, iowa. they've been informed that she might have to move because they have a new provider in that home. so where are they going to move this, this man's daughter? there, we've had dozens and dozens of questions. >>sabrina: wel thanks to chet culver for speaking with us again and you may wonder why is he coming out of the woodworks on this issue? so we did ask him one more time flat out are you planning to run for office? there's a lot of speculation. he said no. he considers himself a disability rights advocate. just wanted to get involved on the issue. (music) >>sabrina: much more on medicaid still ahead. coming up next, we couldn't get the current governor himself on the show today, but don't worry. we have the next best thing. his former communications director tim albrecht is in the studio to

(music) >>carla: we've paid them to take care of our individuals and our population on medicaid. don't know. are they gonna keep it as profit? gonna give it back to the state of iowa? who knows? um, there's so much at stake here it just brings tears to my eyes honestly. >>sabrina: a lot of emotional testimony coming out of the statehouse this week. lots of questions from a medicaid recipient this week in the statehouse. we're joined now by tim albrecht, a political operative who used to work for the governor, for governor branstad. tim, you were the communications director when branstad first took office after defeating governor culver who we just heard from. so i mean, we know that medicaid privatization comes as an executive order by the government, governor. how do you feel about it? >>tim: well, you have to remember that governor branstad defeated governor culver largely on this issue. we faced a 440 million dollar medicaid gap under governor culver so it's

they're now putting him front and center and making him the face of this issue when he mismanagement so, mismanaged it so badly that he was voted out of office. so ultimately this is about the health of the patient and governor branstad is using this as a way to make iowa's population healthier. >>sabrina: so do you think that it's a poor choice on the, not, maybe not the democrats, but on the anti-privatization side to use governor culver? >>tim: if you look at medicaid spending it's gone up 73% over, just over 10 years. and 21% in the future is what it's projected. so the idea that you're going to have governor culver rolled out for this and make him the face of it is just a disservice to the people he's trying to represent. ultimately this is going to make the population healthier. and understand that under governor culver medicaid spending rose 0 million dollars, b b education spending rose just 259 million. so ultimately if you care about education dollars,

for our veterans, something has to be done in order to get our population healthier so that they're not using as much of the health care system. >>sabrina: well, in that 900 million dollars increase that you talked, i mean, 150,000 kids were added to medicaid and governor branstad agreed with the decision to do that. >>tim: well, sure. and w wwanna make sure that we have a healthy population, but you do that not by multiple emergency room visits. instead, what this will do is it will give people access to services and physicians that they didn't have access to before because we need to get the population healthier. you understand that everyday that goes by and somebody doesn't get help that's a disservice. and that really makes them less healthy and it's a chronic issue before it becomes a potentially deadly issue. so let's just back it up and make sure that they have the care they need before they even get in that ambulance and go to the emergency room. >>sabrina: but they're saying they're scared. these recipients of medicaid are saying they're afraid. they don't know what's going to happen to their coverage. they

to have coverage. they don't know if their providers are going to be under the managed care company that they've been assigned to. so what do you say to them? >>tim: well, this has been done in 39 states as evev governor lver was forced to admit. but ultimately the obama administration has approved this plan as a good one. and they've approved it as one that will goorward and make the population healthier. and they did it in conjunction with the governor's office. there's a lot of fear mongering and scare tactics going on. it's not helpful. and we need to just move this system forward to make sure that everybody gets access to the care that they need and deserve. >>sabrina: a bill going through the legislature right now here in iowa is to add oversight. what are your thoughts on that? do you think that there needs to be a bill passed that over, that oversees this medicare? medicaid i mean. >>tim: well, what this bill does is they're attempting to raise questions because they've already lost on the issue so they say well, more oversight is the answer. but ultimately we have the medicaid enterprise. we have the iowa insurance commissioner. we have the state

oversight. so to just bring this up again is more fear mongering and scare tactics. >>sabrina: but only two ombudsman when they say that there should be more than a hundred. >>tim: there's legislative oversight. the entire state of texas has 11 ombudsman. so legislative, ombudsman and the medicaid enterprise there is going to be plenty of oversight on this program. >>sabrina: alright, tim, thank you so much. i feel like we could talk about this for hours, weeks, days, months, years. alright, thank you so much. (music) >>sabrina: coming up next, will donald trumpo all the way? 's looking more and more likely he'll be the nominee.

(music) >>sabrina: in texas on thursday night, civility y ok a back seat as the republican white house candidates battled it out on the debate stage. (cheering) >>mr. cruz: donald claims, donald claims to care about >>mr. trump: you know why? i didn't want to, but he sent me his book with his autograph >>mr. cruz: donald, donald, donald i understand rules are very hard for you. they're very confusing. >>mr. trump: mr. trump, you're doing a great job. i have his book. that >>mr. rubio: yeah, in a reality tv show, not in politics.

thank you for the book. thank you for the book. go ahead. >>mr. cruz: donald, you can gett back on your medednow. >>mr. trump: a lot of fun up here tonight. i have to tell you. heering) >>mr. trump: thaha you for the bobo. i really appreciate it. >>mr. cruz: donald, donald, donald, relax. >>mr. trump: go ahead. i'm relaxed. >>mr. rubio: i sent him a book. >>mr. trump: you're the basket case. go ahead. >>mr. cruz: donald >>mr. trump: go ahead. don't get nervous. go ahead. >>my name, my name is mentioned. >>mr. cruz: i promise you, donald, there is nothing about you that, that makes anyone nervous. >>mr. trump: i've seen you. i've seen you. you lose >>sabrina: that was real. ted cruz and marco rubio both really came out swinging against trump. but he's been the e flon candidate. no criticism seems to stick. it's looking more and more likely he w wl be the nominee. and could he even be president? well, a professor at stony brook university in new york, who claims his statistical model as correctly predicted the results of every electn except one in the last 104 years, has forecast that the odds of donald trump becoming america's next president currently range from 97% to 99%. so dr. steffen schmidt, our political analyst from iowa state university

likelihood that trump will be the next president? really? >>dr. schmidt: and helmut is a great statistician. and as you said he's been very, very accurate. um, i'm afraid this year we don't really know because trump is something we've never measured before. but he certainly is ahead in the polls, is beating up his, his opponents, getting endorsements that are fabulous and he seems unstoppable. >>sabrina: yeah, that chris christie endorsement i, i, my w almost dropped to the floor. >>dr. schmidt: absolutely nobody predicted it. nobo. no insiders. body predicted it. and, you know, that gives him credibility. you know, when starts getting endorsements from other people who are credible and, and, you know, are not people that are from outside the political sphere it builds up his reputation and makes other people kinda go, go to him, ii think, even more. >>sabrina: i guess so. now former gop presidential candidate mitt romnenesays that believes there's a bombshell in donald trump's tax history. >>dr. schmidt: mmhmm. >>sabrina: you, you're shaking head like yeah. yeahyeah. (chuckling) >>sabrina: they talked about his

well. trump says he's not going to release them because, unless he's being audited. so what about this? i mean, can anything derail it? will this derail it? >>dr. schmidt: mitt romney didn't really release any of his numbers until way, way, way later, you know. and, and so what donald trump is saying there's no rush. i'm'morking on my taxes. i've got complicated taxe and of course you can imagine that someone who does the kind of business that he does the taxes probably look kinda strange. but i don't think he's gonna release any of 'em. i think he's gonna wait. he doesn't have to. >>sabrina: do you think they're shady? do you think there's going to be a problem in them? >>dr. schmidt: who knows? you know, taxes are so complicated. even the internal revenue service doesn't understand how they work. (chuckling) >>dr. schmidt: they really don't if you cl them up. and so donald trump has probably done all kinds of business deals. you know, he hasn't gone to jail. you know, he would've been gone to jail, you know, if he had done something really strange. but he may not have given as much money to charities as people are saying or as he's saying. but i think this thing is going to sort of disappear. we've got exciting things coming up and it

the nomination. >>sabrina: now once friendly ted cruz is now ready to fight with him against all odds. he and trump appear to hate each other. so (chuhuling) >>sabrina: i mn, they do. is this hurting the republican brand? >>dr. schmidt: oh, look. you know, these things are always very intense and we get all excited about 'em. and they're often very nasty, bad negative commercials. but you know, once the spring rolls out and when somebody gets enough delegates and then you go to the convention. we won't even remember these debates. so, you know, everything can be healed back up again. but right now it's the mososintense i've er seen. >>sabrina: time healall unds. (chuckling) >>dr. schmidt: exactly. >>sabrina: alright. so cruz has won one state, iowa. the first state. what does that mean? does he have the potential to win any other states or is this gonna turn into a two-man fight between trump and rubio? >>dr. schmidt: he probably will win texas. i mean, if he doesn't win texas it's all over with 'cause that's his state.

>dr. schmidt: um, it means that he hasn't been connecting with the vovors that he connecteded with in iowawaright? i mean, evangelicals and others, they've been split. they've been going to trump. they've been going to be dr. ben carson. and so i think he is in fairly bad shape to be honest with you. and i think you're right that rubio has become the, the biggest contender against trump. you know, those two are the sparring partners and they have gone after each other, i mean, brutally. >>sabrina: gosh, i wish we had more time to continue to talk about this because i would love to hear about bio as well, but ah, alas, for next time. next, iowa's senior senator and the president at odds. but who will win the battle of public

(music)>>sabrina: welcome back everyone. there's a public relations battle brewing between the white house and senate republicans. it has to do with replacing antonin scalia on the supreme court. president obama now saying it will be quote difficult for republicans to explain any attempt to block a supreme court nomination. the president's comments came the day after republicans on the senate judiciary committee wrote

hearings on the president's choice. but the two sides have agreed to have a meeting next week. so iowa senator chuck grassley in the senate judiciary committee, he's the chair of the committee said he will be on that meeting and released a statement about it. quote on tuesday we will meet with the president the white house. we look forward to reiterating to him direly that the american people will be heard and the next supreme court justice will be determined once the elections are complete and the next president has been sworn into office. so dr. steffen schmidt sticking around. very quickly, who wins? >>dr. schmidt: well, nobody wins because it's a deadlock and basically this is going to sort of simmer, i t tnk, until after the elections. i frankly don't think this is gonna get resolved. >>sabrina: you don't think that there any way that president obama will pick the next >>dr. schmidt: he may choose someone and say i'd like this person. the senate isn't gonna hear it. >>sabrina: it's gonna be interesting, dr. >>dr. schmidt: very interesting. >>sabrina: dr. schmidt, thank you so much for being here. >>dr. schmidt: thank you. >>sabrina: we'll take a quick break and be right back on this

(music)you may be wondering where my cohost, amanda krenz, is. well, there's a very good reason she didn't join us this week. here's why. amanda welcomed a baby boy into this world this week, brennan roan. what a love bug. oh my gosh! from all of us here and this week in iowa as our team, amanda, we wish you well and congratulations. we'll see you back here in may. thank you so much for joining us for this week i i iowa. we hope to see you a ain next sunday.

(dramatic music) b: thanks for tuning in to ag phd. i'm brian hefty. d: and i'm darren hefty. thanks for joining us today. you know, many farmers are forced to make some cuts around the country. you know, just trying to make money and trying to survive out there. if you're thinking about cutting traits or you've

cut some traits out. we're going to talk about how you can still manage for maximum yield. b: well if you're managing for maximum yield, you'll want to do it in every crop, including milo. we don't talk very often on the show about milo production, but we're going to today-about how you get the best weed control this year. d: speaking of weeds to control, our weed of the week is not an easy one. we'll show you how to get it under control on your farm. but first, here's this week's farm basics. b: during our farm basics time today, we're going to talk about one of the most important things you need to know as a farmer-or as a consumer: it's pesticide safety. d: