This week, the House Health Care & Wellness Committee held a hearing on HB 1523, which would offer Washingtonians the option to purchase lower-costing health insurance coverage on the Health Benefit Exchange (the individual market). WSHA supports expanding access to health care coverage, but we have concerns with this bill, as the payment rate to providers and hospitals for these plans would be the same as the payment rate for Medicare, which is less than the cost of care.
The committee is also holding a hearing this week on HB 1394, which WSHA strongly supports, as it would continue the Certificate of Need (CN) exemption for psychiatric beds. CN has been identified as a challenge to increasing inpatient psychiatric services, and WSHA supports more access to these services.
Read more about these issues and this week’s hearings in the latest edition of Inside Olympia. You can also subscribe to Inside Olympia to receive the newsletter each Monday.
