Thomas McIntyre was fired as vice president of communications of the Iowa Hospital Association after making a Facebook post critical of Gov. Kim Reynolds' handling of Medicaid in the state, the Des Moines Register reported.
The Register obtained documents related to Mr. McIntyre's state unemployment appeal hearing Sept. 30.
In March, Mr. McIntyre responded to a coworker's post on Facebook, expressing criticism of Gov. Reynolds' handling of Medicaid privatization in Iowa. He responded using his personal account on the coworker's personal Facebook page. Neither account was accessible to the public. The post was deleted and Mr. McIntyre issued an apology, but he and his coworker were fired a few days later, Mr. McIntyre said.
At the unemployment hearing, Mr. McIntyre said that his post was meant to be satirical.
"I was trying to kind of be funny with it. I was trying to, like, do it satirically, like, kind of in a Donald Trump language. Kind of an over-the-top, hyperbole thing," he said at the hearing.
Mr. McIntyre said that the association's CEO, James Norris, indicated that the decision to fire him stemmed from "small but powerful group," who were angered by the post.
In 2015, the decision was made to privatize the state's Medicaid services by Gov. Reynolds' predecessor. Gov. Reynolds favored the move, saying it would lead to more efficient care. But critics have said that privatization has led to big cuts in services for people with disabilities and has not yielded reimbursement gains for healthcare providers in the state.
Mr. McIntyre previously voiced criticism of some of the aspects of Medicaid privatization, including the cuts to reimbursement for providers.
He won the unemployment appeal. Iowa Administrative Law Judge Beth Scheetz ruled Oct. 1 that the association did not prove that Mr. McIntyre intended to harm the group with his Facebook post, and she granted him benefits.