Comment: State mends a safety net that saved many in pandemic

Funding and more will help replenish the community health centers many relied on the past two years.

By June Robinson and Joe Vessey / For The Herald

The landmark investments made this legislative session to Washington state’s health care system are akin to providing critical life support to a patient.

After two years of pandemic response, along with providing continued essential primary and behavioral health services, our community health centers in Snohomish County and across the state needed significant support. The Legislature acted with meaningful policies and investments that will breathe life back into these community resources.

Just as our health care system was there for our communities throughout the pandemic, state leaders were there to shore up these safety-net providers.

The state Senate led efforts to fix problems with current health center payment models that were unintentionally penalizing community health centers for their services during the pandemic. Without these funding changes, community health centers would have experienced huge payment shortages or be required to return funding; a far cry from rewarding them for their accomplishments during this crisis.

The Legislature further supported the health and wellness of Washingtonians by expanding health coverage to all uninsured adults who are below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, regardless of immigration status; addressing dental care shortages for low-income patients by funding new community health dental clinics; increasing reimbursement for children’s dental care; and making investments to health care workforce development.

The challenges our health care safety net has faced over the past two years have been extensive. Health centers like Community Health Center of Snohomish County have provided community-wide public health response, including drive-through coronavirus testing, vaccine education and outreach, and vaccination clinics, with a priority of reaching the most underserved populations in our communities.

Community members continually relied on our community health centers. When the public sought testing during a surge of covid-19 in the fall of 2020, Community Health Center of Snohomish County stepped up and nearly doubled the number of tests typically conducted to meet the need.

We rely on our primary health care providers and health centers to continue to stand up to current and future challenges in our communities to ensure that our most vulnerable populations receive the care they need. This session the Legislature gave our health care system the recognition and support it deserves. These investments reflect our belief that our community isn’t a healthy community unless we are all healthy; and that our community health centers are a critical linchpin to the health and vitality of our state.

Joe Vessey has over 20 years of experience in healthcare leadership and finance and has served as chief executive of Community Health Center of Snohomish County since 2019. Community Health Center of Snohomish County provides primary care, dental care, and behavioral health to 70,000 people annually.

State Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, represents the 38th Legislative District. She serves as the vice chair of the Ways and Means Committee and is a member of the Health and Long Term Care Committee and the Labor, Commerce and Tribal Affairs Committee.

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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