Pflug introduces bill to save state health care safety net – within projected revenues

February 9, 2009

OLYMPIA…In response to the threat of severe cuts to Washington’s critical health care safety net for the homeless and working poor, Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, today announced an affordable bipartisan plan to preserve state health coverage for the most vulnerable while reforming the way this health care is delivered.  

The governor has proposed a 42 percent budget cut to the Basic Health Plan, cuts to Medicaid and elimination of the medical coverage to 16,000 permanently disabled and homeless people receiving help through the General Assistance-Unemployable program.  

Pflug’s proposal, called Apple Health Community Care, would reconfigure health care spending to restore funding for most of these safety net programs. Her plan would also capture additional federal matching funds for adults who have been dropped from BHP and GA-U through a state plan amendment and new waiver authority.  

“Senate Bill 5898 would initially fund the safety net by adjusting the monthly appropriation for state employee health care benefits,” Pflug said. “Monthly funding levels per employee are scheduled to increase from 732 dollars in 2009 to 831 dollars in 2011, a nearly 14 percent increase. State employees could choose to keep the same coverage they have today for an increased share of the premium or choose an alternative that provides generous health coverage without increasing their monthly premium.”  

Apple Health Community Care would also allow the working poor to enroll in their employer’s health insurance plan by adding a sliding-scale state subsidy to make it affordable.  This is a more cost-effective approach that makes it possible to cover more people while decreasing state expenditures. 

“With this new plan, the state would improve access to regular care by reforming the way it delivers health care,” Pflug said. “For example, a mother and her children on the BHP may suddenly become ineligible because the mother’s income rises. The kids are still covered by SCHIP, but the mother suddenly has no coverage, or must switch to a different provider network.  Instead, I propose a single entryway to state assistance without the current fragmentation of plans and assure that this mom has continuous coverage as her incomes rises. The plan would provide a seamless path from poverty to self-reliance, through a sliding-scale premium assistance program that involves the worker, the employer and the state.”

To accomplish this, Senate Bill 5898 creates the Apple Health Community Care Council to consolidate the state’s fragmented medical assistance programs and leverage additional matching funds from the federal government. The council would consist of the secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services and the administrator of the Health Care Authority as well as legislative members and stakeholder groups.

“Apple Health Community Care would offer a significant change to the way we fund and deliver health care assistance in this state,” Pflug said. “It gives enrollees a clear point of entry and unbroken health care as they move through life. The needy would not be dropped off state coverage, as initially proposed by the governor.  

“Because enrollees will have medical homes, it would prevent a dramatic increase in the amount of high-cost, uncompensated care that would inevitably result as the uninsured are forced to go to the emergency room for health care,” Pflug said. “Overall, the plan would simplify access to coverage, streamline administration and offer even more savings to taxpayers by helping people take advantage of health benefits already available through their employers.”  

Pflug is the Republican Ranking Member of the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee.  Her Democrat counterpart, Sen. Karen Keiser, chairs the committee and is a co-sponsor of SB 5898, which is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee on Monday, Feb. 16.

Sen. Pflug represents the 5th Legislative District, which includes North Bend, Maple Valley, Issaquah, Sammamish, Fall City, Snoqualmie and
parts of rural King County.

For more information contact Pat Albright
at (360) 786-7519 or albright.pat@leg.wa.gov^.