Hearings set on Medicaid plan

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — How much should poor people pay for health care?

That question lies at the heart of a state proposal to impose premiums, co-payments and enrollment caps on some Medicaid clients and services.

State officials say people need to take responsibility for at least part of their health care costs if Medicaid is going to survive. But some people — including Washington’s entire congressional delegation — worry the plan would hurt children by making it harder for poor families to get health care.

Now it’s your turn. The Department of Social and Health Services is holding public meetings around the state where people can learn about the proposed Medicaid changes and speak their mind.

Medicaid provides health care to 900,000 poor people in Washington. The $2 billion yearly cost, split by state and federal government, eats up about 10 percent of the state budget. During the last decade, Washington led the nation in expanding Medicaid to cover more people. Now one in three Washington children get their health care through Medicaid.

But as health care costs grow rapidly, the state is struggling to afford Medicaid.

That’s why the state is asking the federal government for permission to charge some Medicaid patients co-pays and premiums, and to cap enrollment in some programs. State officials say the plan would allow them to avoid broader and more destructive cuts.

State officials submitted an intentionally vague "Medicaid reform" plan last December, hoping the federal government would give them broad powers to tinker with Medicaid benefits. But the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, the federal agency in charge of the program, kicked the proposal back to Washington State and asked for more specifics and more public comment.

In July, after the public hearings, the state will resubmit a more specific plan.

Here are some details of the proposal: