Des Moines Register editorial writer wins Pulitzer Prize
Andie Dominick, an editorial writer at the Des Moines Register, on Monday won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for a selection of Iowa-focused editorials criticizing policies that restrict access to health care.
It is the Register’s 17th Pulitzer Prize, and its first since 2010.
The Pulitzer Prize citation states that Dominick won "for examining in a clear, indignant voice, free of cliché or sentimentality, the damaging consequences for poor Iowa residents of privatizing the state’s administration of Medicaid."
The Register invited Iowans to share the experiences they have had with Medicaid under privatized management, which allowed Dominick to put a human face on denials of care, loss of access to services, and providers going out of business because they were not being reimbursed by for-profit insurers.
Other editorials decried state lawmakers’ efforts to impede fetal tissue research and said the Trump administration’s handling of the Affordable Care Act was jeopardizing access to coverage.
Speaking to a crowd of Register employees who raised glasses of champagne to toast her, Dominick said she was in shock at the win.
Dominick called health care "a passion of mine" and said she was honored to be recognized for her work on such an important topic.
"It’s such an honor to be recognized for the whole paper’s work on Medicaid and ensuring Iowans have access to health care," Dominick said. "And we’ll continue to work to make Iowa a better place to live."
Register Executive Editor Carol Hunter echoed that sentiment, calling the paper's work on health care coverage and Medicaid in particular "a team effort" driven by strong investigative reporting.
But Dominick's editorials are also driven by her own research and reporting, Hunter said, calling the win "a real credit to her work ethic and her journalism credentials."
"She does so much original reporting to inform her editorials," Hunter said of Dominick. "She has long made health care a subject of study and research. These editorials reflect her in-depth knowledge of the subject and how much she cares about access to good health care for all Iowans."
The effects of Iowa's Medicaid privatization will continue to be a focus of the Register's reporting and editorial writing, Hunter said, adding that she hopes the prize will focus more attention on health care in Iowa.
Care Denied:How Iowa's Medicaid maze is trapping patients in endless appeals
"One can hope that the additional attention on this set of editorials might persuade our legislators and the governor’s office to take an even harder look at taking steps to ensure the management of the Medicaid program is benefiting Iowans," Hunter said.
Register President and Publisher David Chivers, who sits with Hunter and Dominick on the paper's editorial board, said he's seen up close Dominick's passion and focus on the topic of Medicaid privatization.
"In every meeting since this Medicaid privatization thing has been unfolding, Andie has said very passionately that this has been an important topic for Iowa and for our citizens," Chivers told the Register newsroom Monday afternoon.
"This topic is such a crucial topic affecting the lives of Iowans that it’s just a terrific acknowledgment of the important work that we do every day here for the state and all the communities that make up the state," Chivers added in an interview.
Dominick's Pulitzer-winning editorials:
- Good riddance, AmeriHealth: One private Medicaid insurer down, two to go
- Editorial: Branstad's private Medicaid 'success' that wasn't
- Editorial: Privatized Medicaid is worst prank ever
- Editorial: Private Medicaid’s latest victim is Iowa teen
Dominick was a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist in editorial writing for challenging Iowa's arcane licensing laws that regulate occupations ranging from cosmetologists to dentists and often protect practitioners more than the public.
Dominick has been an editorial writer at the Register since 2001. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Iowa State University.
She is the author of "Needles: A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes," published by Simon and Schuster in the U.S. and translated into several languages.
She and her husband live in Des Moines and have three adult children.
The Register's most recent Pulitzer was awarded in 2010 to photographer Mary Chind for her dramatic photo of a construction worker rescuing a woman from the Des Moines River in 2009.
Before that, Jane Schorer Meisner won a Pulitzer for public service in 1991.
This is the second year in a row that an Iowa newspaper has won the Pulitzer for editorial writing.
Storm Lake Times Editor Art Cullen won the prize in 2017 for a series of editorials focused on Iowa's water quality.
Pulitzers awarded to the Register
- Andie Dominick, Editorial Writing, 2018
- Mary Chind, Photography, 2010
- Jane Schorer Meisner, Public Service, 1991
- Dave Peterson, Photography, 1987
- Tom Knudson, National Reporting, 1985
- James Risser, National Reporting, 1979
- James Risser, National Reporting, 1976
- Nick Kotz, National Reporting, 1968
- Frank Miller, Cartoons, 1963
- Clark Mollenhoff, National Reporting, 1958
- Lauren Soth, Editorials, 1956
- Richard Wilson, National Reporting, 1954
- John Robinson and Don Ultang, Photography, 1952
- Forrest Seymour, Editorials, 1943
- J.N. (Ding) Darling, Cartoons, 1943
- W.W. Waymack, Editorials, 1938
- J.N. (Ding) Darling, Cartoons, 1924
RELATED:
Small-town Pulitzer Prize winner snubbed by Republican-led Iowa Senate
Iowa newspaper editor wins Pulitzer Prize
