Philadelphia, Pa. – AmeriHealth Caritas, a national leader in Medicaid managed care and other integrated health care solutions, announced that its Iowa affiliate, AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa, has been notified by Iowa's Department of Human Services (DHS) of its intent to contract with AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa to be one of four health plans to administer the state's Medicaid managed care program, the Iowa High Quality Health Care Initiative. The contract will begin January 1, 2016.

"We commend the Iowa DHS for its commitment to creating and implementing an innovative Medicaid managed care program for its enrollees," said Paul Tufano, chairman and chief executive officer of AmeriHealth Caritas. "We are proud of the selection to administer Iowa's Medicaid managed care program and look forward to serving the people of this great state with our innovative services and programs."

AmeriHealth Caritas provides a comprehensive, compassionate and outcomes-driven approach to care through its integrated managed care products, behavioral health services, full-service pharmaceutical benefit manager, specialty pharmacy and other administrative services. Iowa members will benefit from the company's more than 30 years of experience in caring for diverse populations with complex health conditions, as well as its focus on caring for the whole person through its integrated model of care.

AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa expects to hire approximately 400 associates to support the health plan, more than half of whom will work throughout the state of Iowa. This team, working in partnership with providers, advocacy groups and community organizations across the state, will aim to help Iowans get care, stay well and build healthy communities.

"Core to AmeriHealth Caritas' mission is that every individual should have access to quality health care and services," said Tufano. "It is a privilege for us to bring our experience and expertise to Iowa and continue our work with our partners across the state in removing barriers to health care and improving services for those who are most in need."

About AmeriHealth Caritas

AmeriHealth Caritas is part of the Independence Health Group in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. AmeriHealth Caritas is one of the nation's leaders in health care solutions for those most in need. Operating in 16 states and the District of Columbia, AmeriHealth Caritas serves more than 6.8 million Medicaid, Medicare and CHIP members through its integrated managed care products, pharmaceutical benefit management and specialty pharmacy services, behavioral health services and other administrative services. Headquartered in Philadelphia, AmeriHealth Caritas is a mission-driven organization with more than 30 years of experience serving low-income and chronically ill populations. For more information, visit www.amerihealthcaritas.com.

Demonstrating Hillary Clinton's commitment to building a grassroots campaign and the enthusiasm for her agenda amongwomen, "Iowa Women for Hillary" is launching today - a grassroots group of supporters, including at least one leader already in each of Iowa's 99 counties. Iowa Women for Hillary will campaign across Iowa and let women know why Clinton is the candidate who will fight for them as President. The campaign had already identified at least one supporter in all 1,682 precincts in Iowa and having Women for Hillary in every one of Iowa's 99 counties builds on that strong organizational foundation.

"Hillary Clinton is the fighter we need in the White House," said Ruth Harkin,  Women for Hillary member in Warren County. "Iowa women want a President who will stand up for them and fight for equal pay, paid family leave and stand up to Republican attempts to get between women and their doctors. Hillary Clinton will be that President."

Members of Women for Hillary have all committed to taking an action in support of Hillary Clinton's grassroots campaign such as phone banking, door knocking, letter writing or hosting a grassroots organizing event. Harkin will host a grassroots organizing event at the end of the month.

"Hillary Clinton has spent her career advocating for women and families and that's exactly what she'll do as President," said former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell, a Women for Hillary member in Polk County. "Hillary understands that when women are short-changed, entire families are short-changed. She won't back down when it comes to the issues that are important to Iowa women."

Hillary Clinton has said throughout this campaign that if Republicans don't like it when she addresses issues that are important to women and families, they should "get ready for a long campaign."

"Women and families in Iowa have fought back from tough economic times but too many of them still aren't able to get ahead," said Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston, a DNC Member and Women for Hillary member in Linn County. "HillaryClinton has  a plan to make sure more families can afford college and to encourage companies to share more of their profits with workers. She will be a President than makes sure women and families are able to share in that basic American bargain that if you play by the rules and work hard, you can succeed."

Women for Hillary includes nearly 200 women from all of Iowa's 99 counties including nearly two dozen State Legislators, County Chairs and local elected officials. The full list of Women for Hillary can be found here. Supporters can sign up to be a part of IowaWomen for Hillary here.

Please see below for a sample of Women for Hillary:

Black Hawk - Rep. Timi Brown-Powers

Benton - Rosemary Schwartz, Benton County Democratic Chair

Buena Vista - Sara Huddleston, Storm Lake City Councilor

Dallas - Susan Terry Knapp, Vice President of Brokerage Services at Knapp Properties, Inc.

Davis - Cheryll Jones, Nurse

Decatur - Sherry Morain, Lamoni City Councilor

Des Moines - Elaine Baxter, former Secretary of State

Dubuque - Rep. Abby Finkenauer

Guthrie - Kathy Miller, Guthrie County Democratic Chair

Jefferson - Susie Drish, Jefferson County Democratic Chair

Johnson - Carter Bell, Student

Johnson - Rep. Vicki Lensing

Johnson - Janet Lyness, Johnson County Attorney

Johnson - Rep. Mary Mascher

Johnson - Kim Painter, Johnson County Recorder

Johnson - Rep. Sally Stutsman

Johnson - Amy Nielsen, North Liberty Mayor

Keokuk - Mary Krier, Keokuk County Democratic Chair

Linn - Lee Clancey, former Cedar Rapids Mayor

Linn - State Sen. Liz Mathis

Linn - Libby Slappey, Democratic Activist

Lucas - Joan Amos, Lucas County Democratic Chair

Page - Jennifer Herrington, Page County Democratic Chair

Palo Alto - Kay Kibbie, Democratic Activist

Polk - Rep. Marti Anderson

Polk - Liz Brennan, West Des Moines School Board Member

Polk - Alicia Claypool, former Chair of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission

Polk - Roxanne Conlin, former Iowa Democratic Party Chair

Polk - Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines

Polk - Jill June, former President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland

Polk - Rep. Jo Oldson

Polk - Sally Pederson, former Lt. Governor

Polk - Sen. Janet Peterson

Scott - Roxanna Moritz, Scott County Auditor

Scott - Rep. Phyllis Thede

Shelby - Julie Theulen, Shelby County Democratic Chair

Story - Jan Bauer, Story County Democratic Chair and DNC Member

Van Buren - Twyla Peacock, Van Buren County Democratic Chair

Warren - Staci Appel, former Congressional Candidate and State Senator

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Born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1921, John Howard spent many summers in Rockford staying with his grandparents, Charles and Mary Sackett. Among his Rockford ancestors was John Manny, inventor of the famed Manny Reaper in the 1850s. [A portrait of Manny graced John's office for as long as I knew him.]  Graduating from the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, he entered Princeton University in 1939.

Three years later, John's academic studies were interrupted by entry into the U.S. Army. For the next three years, he served in an armored unit of the First Infantry Division. From D-Day through "Victory in Europe" Day, he was in almost continuous combat, including intensive engagement in the Battle of the Bulge. For his service, he received two Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and a battlefield commission. Following the war, he continued academic work at Northwestern University, where he gained B.S., B.A., and Ph.D. degrees, the latter in French Literature.

In 1951, John married Janette Marie Nobis of Davenport, Iowa. They would have four children: Marie, Steven, Martha, and Katherine.

John took a position as an Instructor at California's Palos Verdes College in 1947. Two years later, he became Dean of Students. And in 1951, at age 29, he became President of the College. Four years later he left that post, accepting appointment by President Dwight Eisenhower as Executive Vice Chairman of the President's Committee on Government Contracts. This body conducted the first program to leverage federal contracts to open jobs to qualified minority applicants. In this capacity, he reported to Vice President Richard Nixon; committee members included labor leaders George Meany and Walter Reuther and U.S. Attorney General William Rogers.

In 1960, John began a term of seventeen years as President of Rockford College. He arrived at a critical time, for the College trustees had recently resolved to build an entirely new campus, yet lacked the needed funding.  He coordinated the fundraising for and construction of 25 new buildings, all paid for without any government money. John expanded the Board of Trustees to include many prominent national citizens, reestablished the college chaplaincy and the practice of invocations at college events, tripled faculty salaries and instituted a pension program, and raised student body size by 50 percent.

John Howard also distinguished himself as an opponent of any federal funding of private higher education, arguing [prophetically] that such aid would undermine the autonomy of such schools. Toward that end, he helped found and served as President (for three years) of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities.

In addition, John became a prominent, principled foe of the student radicalism and "counter-culturalism" sweeping American campuses in the late 1960's and early 1970's. His public debates with Stanford University's "Maoist" Professor H. Bruce Franklin appeared as the book Who Should Run the University? He also debated leaders of the Berkeley "free speech" movement. In 1969, President Nixon invited him to join the White House Task Force on Priorities in Higher Education, to suggest ways in which the federal government might help calm the turmoil on American campuses. In 1971, he accepted another Presidential appointment, this time to the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse; he long continued to argue against marijuana legalization.

By this time, John Howard also won recognition as a leader in the emerging Conservative movement in America, committed to reclaiming and advancing the ideals of ordered liberty. In this regard, he was an early friend and collaborator with conservative intellectuals such as Russell Kirk and Robert Nisbet, publisher Henry Regnery, editor William F. Buckley, and future President Ronald Reagan. He gained election to membership in the prestigious Mt. Pelerin Society and the Philadelphia Society, serving as President of the latter in 1979-80.

In 1976, John Howard created the Rockford College Institute, to analyze and respond to the damage done to American social institutions by the cultural upheaval of the late 1960's. He recruited writer Leopold Tyrmand-expelled from Communist Poland several years earlier for anti-government activities-as editor of a new monthly periodical, Chronicles of Culture (now, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture). John stepped down as College President in 1977, to become full-time director of the Institute. Over the next several years, he held three major national conferences in Rockford on "Capitalism and Culture," "Corporate Responsibility," and "The Family: America's Hope." The latter was the first national conference to document and analyze the family decay that had come in wake of the "counter-culture." John edited the lectures presented at these events into books bearing the same titles.

The renamed Rockford Institute became independent of the College in 1979 and moved to its current location on North Main Street. I joined the Institute in 1981 as Assistant to the President and then Executive Vice President. Chronicles and the monthly monograph series launched by John Howard in 1977--originally named Persuasion at Work and focused in the beginning on the activities of the hard-left in American politics and culture-- continued under the new framework. [The latter would be relaunched in 1987 as The Family in America, with an exclusive emphasis on family questions and continues to this day as a quarterly journal.] In 1982, John conceived and hosted a European-wide Congress, "For Your Freedom, and Ours," held in Frankfurt, Germany and drawing intellectual and political leaders from across the continent. Two years later, John created The Center on Religion and Society. Its first director was Richard John Neuhaus; his successor in 1989 would be Harold O.J. Brown. On Leopold Tyrmand's untimely death in 1985, Thomas J. Fleming became editor of Chronicles.

On reaching age 65, John Howard retired as President of the Institute, assuming the post of Senior Fellow. In the 29 years which followed, he continued to give lectures, write articles and books, and assist in fund-raising and long-range planning. For example, he was an inspiration for and active participant in the inaugural World Congress of Families (WCF), held 1997 in Prague, The Czech Republic. This event has since grown into an international movement of pro-family leaders and organizations which has held over 30 regional congresses on six continents and will soon convene the Ninth full WCF in Salt Lake City. He also gave presentations at full congresses in Geneva, Mexico City, and Warsaw.

In 1997, John guided the spinoff of several Rockford Institute programs into an independent Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, named in his honor. He holds honorary Doctorate degrees from Grove City College, Rockford College, and Brigham Young University.

Over the years, John spoke before over 500 audiences. Forty-five of these addresses were featured in the publication, Vital Speeches. In addition to the volumes already mentioned, John Howard's books included: Churches on the Wrong Road (as editor, 1986); Detoxifying the Culture (2001); Christianity: Lifeblood of America's Free Society, 1620-1945 (2012); and America's Best Colleges! Really! (2012).

John Howard is survived by his wife, Janette, by his children Marie Howard Schroeder, Steven Lamson Howard, Martha Howard Manning, and Katharine Howard Drerup, and by nine grandchildren. He will be buried in Rockford's Greenwood Cemetery next to his illustrious ancestor, John Manny.

After a lifetime of devoted service to family, faith, and nation, may he Rest In Peace.