SEATTLE — A Snohomish County woman who’s fighting breast cancer has filed a potential class-action lawsuit over cuts to Basic Health, a month after the state booted 17,000 people off the subsidized health-care program.
Among those disqualified from the program included kids, seniors, undocumented U.S. residents and legal immigrants who have not lived in the U.S. for at least five years.
Seattlepi.com reports that the complaint was filed this week in U.S. District court and seeks class-action status. It accuses the state of violating the Constitution’s equal-protection clause by disqualifying some legal immigrants while serving others.
The plaintiff, Rattiya Unthaksinkun, says she has lived legally in the U.S. for four years. She says she recently had to cancel a needed medical test because she lost coverage.
A Basic Health spokeswoman said she could not comment on the lawsuit.
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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/
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