Judge allows 11,000 to rejoin state’s Basic Health Plan

SEATTLE — To help balance the state budget, Washington kicked 17,000 people off its Basic Health Plan in March. A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the state to invite 11,000 of them to rejoin the subsidized health-care program.

Seattlepi.com reports U.S. District Court Judge James Robart said the state had violated constitutional and due-process rights when it kicked thousands of legal immigrants off Basic Health in March.

The state found it could save nearly $10 million by deciding certain people, including children, seniors and legal immigrants, were ineligible because they hadn’t lived in the country for at least five years.

Advocates filed a class-action lawsuit in April.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Health Care Authority says the potential financial impact to the state was not immediately clear.

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