Groups fear Washington state legislators will divert feds' health-care cash
Puget Sound Business Journal, March 6, 2009 Source
Washington stands to receive $2.06 billion in federal stimulus money during the next two years to support the state's Medicaid program, but hospitals and other health-care groups are worried.
They fear the Legislature might divert some or much of the funds to fill other holes in the state operating budget, which faces an $8 billion deficit, or worse.
Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a two-year budget that includes $990 million in cuts on state health-care spending. Health-care groups will lobby state lawmakers hard to use the Medicaid stimulus funds to forestall cuts to such state programs as providing health coverage to low-income disabled residents and to low-income workers.
Randy Revelle, senior vice president at the Washington State Hospital Association, issued a statement that said the governor's proposed cuts "will shred the health care safety net, create 60,000 uninsured people virtually overnight, erode the mental health system, and make damaging cuts to providers such as hospitals and community clinics."