Pflug praises health care agency’s prioritizing; making hard decisions the Legislature avoided

June 8, 2009

OLYMPIA…In response to today’s Health Care Authority announcement outlining a plan to keep Washington’s most vulnerable on the Basic Health Plan by increasing premiums and reviewing eligibility, Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, ranking Republican on the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee, issued this statement:

“This is good news. The agency has done the best it can to protect the people it serves.   The Legislature adjourned and left the Health Care Authority holding the bag, so it had to make the hard decisions the Legislature refused to make. The decision to prioritize the most vulnerable on the Basic Health Plan, find efficiencies in the system, and make the most of the available funding is exactly right.

“The majority Democrats wanted to solve this problem by browbeating taxpayers. They wasted four months bellowing things like ‘People will die!’ in hopes of justifying tax increases. When they finally accepted the reality that the public is not in a position to pay more, it was too late to recoup the money that could have been saved if the efficiencies the HCA announced today had been implemented then.

“Despite the HCA’s best efforts, there will still be tens of thousands who are unable to pay the higher premiums. The Legislature, not the taxpayers, is responsible for this. Just as it was possible to implement these efficiencies earlier, it was also possible to implement insurance reforms that provide a low-cost option for our 19- to 34-year olds. Both would have increased capacity in the Basic Health Plan for other needy individuals.

“What I find most offensive is the majority party's adherence to the deal they made with the leaders of the public employees union. Instead of asking state employees to pay a little more for their luxurious health insurance, it effectively shifted the premium increase to the poorest of all Washingtonians. A 17-dollar-per-month benefit reduction would not have been an undue hardship for state employees, whereas it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some BHP enrollees — not to mention the needy on the waiting list who are already uninsured. The Health Care Authority has no authority to shift money from one program to another.  That is the job of the Legislature, and the majority leadership refused to do it.  Politics came before people...and that's not right.

“The public knows that efficiencies can be squeezed out of virtually every government program. Today's announcement shows that, to the greatest extent possible, at least one state agency will do that. I applaud them. As for the elected officials who shirked their responsibility during the session and then issued statements today crediting themselves with having “asked the agency” for these hard decisions, all I can say is, “Wow. Have they no shame?”

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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^.