Structural healthcare reform is on the table in Washington
By noemie maxwell
Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 07:39:49 AM PST
Section: Washington State
Topic: Health
Senator Keiser opened yesterday's Health & Long-Term Care committee session with the observation that it was a "big day". This was the start of hearings considering, for the first time in many years, major structural reform of the state's health care system. Four Senate bills were under discussion, representing what I understood as 4 of the 5 major proposals now being considered. My husband and I signed in as supporting the most comprehensive of the four, Senator Keiser's and Kohl-Welles' Washington Health Partnership bill. See below the fold for more information on these five proposals.
UPCOMING
- WA Senate Healthcare Reform Web Dialogue, 1/22 and 1/23: http://www.webdialogue.net/wasen/healthcare. This page links to comprehensive info on health care reform in WA.
- Annual public meeting, Physicians for a National Health Program, Western WA: Effects of Uninsurance on our Communities (Sunday, February 10, 7pm, Kane Hall, University of Washington, free admission.) PNHP advocates for a single-payer national healthcare system and moving toward a national universal health care coverage with a state-by-state approach.
The four bills that received hearings yesterday: - SB 6221: Establishing the Washington Health Partnership, Sponsors: Senators Keiser and Kohl-Welles
- SB 6603: Establishing the Guaranteed Health Benefit Program Act, by request of Washington State Insurance Commissioner; Sponsor: Senators Fairley, Kohl-Welles, and Fraser
- SB 6030: Providing Health Insurance Options for Young Adults, Sponsors: Senators Parlette, Schoesler
- SB 6574 Reforming the Healthcare System in Washington State, Sponsor: Senator Pflug
Among those testifying were Washington's Insurance Commissioner Mike Kriedler, who requested SB 6603, and Wisconsin Senator Jon Erpenbach, a sponsor of Wisconsin's Health Security Act, which SB 6221 is modeled on. An additional major proposal was not up for a hearing yesterday. "Creating The Health Security Trust": SB 5756 and HB 1886, would "create a framework and process to involve the citizens of Washington in the creation of a single financing entity called the Washington health security trust". Similar to Senator Keiser's proposal, this approach would generate savings by eliminating "excessive administrative costs resulting from the current fragmented system of multiple insurers". The cost savings would ensure comprehensive health care coverage for all Washington residents independent from employment. The more comprehensive approaches represented by both SB 1661 and by SB 5756/HB 1886 are backed by two Washington organizations that were represented at the hearing, Washington Health Security Coalition, a coalition of over 20 organizations and Physicians for a National Health Program.
I thought I understood that SB 5756/HB 1886, which is the most comprehensive proposal of all, was preferred by these two organizations and will require some citizen support to receive full consideration along with the other proposals. Section 1 SB 6221 provides a good overview of why structural reform is not only critically necessary - but unavoidable:
From the introduction to SB 6221 Establishing the Washington Health PartnershipThe legislature finds that: - Nationally and locally health care costs are inflating faster than the consumer price index and wages;
- Since 1980, health care costs have increased from nine percent to sixteen percent of the nation's gross domestic product, and are expected to exceed twenty percent by 2016;
- Other industrialized nations provide universal health care coverage, but spend much less. Some spend less than half as much per person;
- In 2007, the average annual premium for family coverage was more than twelve thousand dollars, of which over three thousand dollars are paid by the worker;
- In 2008, of Washingtonians under the age of sixty-five, over one million three hundred thousand will spend more than ten percent of their pretax family income on health care costs. Eighty-four of these people have insurance;
- Every thirty seconds, someone in this country files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Of those who file for bankruptcy, sixty-eight percent had health insurance;
- In Washington state, approximately thirty cents of every dollar received by hospitals and doctors' offices is consumed by the administrative expenses of the health plans and the providers. Before the doctors and hospitals receive the funds for delivering the care, approximately fourteen percent of the insurance premium has already been consumed by health plan administration;
- In 2006, hospitals, physicians, community clinics, and other providers spent a combined total of five hundred eighty-four million dollars in uncompensated care for the uninsured, a twenty-eight percent increase since 2002;
- The institute of medicine estimates that between thirty and forty cents associated with every health care dollar is spent on costs of poor quality - overuse, underuse, misuse, duplication, system failures, unnecessary repetition, poor communication, and adverse events attributable to medical errors;
- Rising costs have led to a decline in employer-provided health benefits. In Washington, since 1993, employer-based coverage declined from seventy-one percent to sixty-five percent;
- In 2007, fewer than half of small employers in Washington are able to offer coverage to their employees;
- Rising costs are seriously threatening the physical and fiscal well-being of Washingtonians, the ability of Washington businesses to compete globally, farms to thrive, government to provide needed services, schools to educate, and local citizens to form new and successful business ventures.
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