Washington - Governor Chris Gregoire’s Healthy Washington Initiative
The Healthy Washington Initiative is a comprehensive healthcare bill that makes strategic investments to implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access, such as:
- Extending Coverage to Young Adults - requires insurance companies to address this gap in coverage and extend eligibility to unmarried children under the age of 25, by either continuing to allow the employer to contribute to the cost of coverage or allowing the employee to pay the cost in full.
- Health Coverage Portability - directs the Washington Health Care Authority (HCA) to design a connector as a statewide public-private partnership through which health insurance can be bought and sold.
- Reducing Emergency Room Visits - directs the HCA to provide grants to those community health centers that work with local hospitals to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits. It tracks these types of visits and asks the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and the HCA to work with local providers to design a demonstration project that will reduce these unnecessary visits.
- Establishing the Washington Quality Forum - will address why patients receive different kinds of treatment depending on where they live.
- Implementation of a Health Information Technology System - Medical records are available from anywhere in the state in a safe and secure way.
- Expanding Chronic Care Management Programs -to better serve the five percent of patients who drive 50% of the costs.
- The Office of the Insurance Commissioner is to look closely into high administrative costs and what can be done about them.
- The state is to design and model a reinsurance program that would cover high-cost claims so that we can keep health insurance more affordable.
- Washington state agencies are to change the way they pay for healthcare by paying only for care that improves health; and
- The state is to make the best use of existing state programs by directing DSHS to look for ways to partner with the federal government to expand coverage in Medicaid and in the Basic Health Program.
To learn more, please visit http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/healthcare/healthcare_brief.pdf. Also read Senate Bill 5930 (passed by Senate on March 9, 2007) and Senate Bill 5093 (expands access to health care for children, signed into law on March 13, 2007)
This page was last updated on 4/17/2007
