It’s a joint meeting between the Puget Sound Health Alliance and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality on national health care reform efforts. It was taped in Seattle last week. Enjoy.

Tags: healthcare

Have a great weekend — and get ready to come back Monday for a big (though short) week:

On Monday at 10 a.m., we’ll be live with the Joint Senate Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. They’ll hold a hearing on an amendment to the gaming compact between the Tulalip Indian Tribe and the state. First, they’ll review the 2009 legislation on gambling, then they’ll review card room regulations, hear an update on “problem gambling services” and another update on federal legislation on Internet gambling.

Also on Monday is ah earing on climate change. We’ll air it Wednesday at 7 p.m. On the agenda:

1. Overview of the Governor’s Executive Order 09-05 on climate change.
2. Overview of possible federal executive and legislative actions regarding climate change.
3. Review of current policies on solid waste and recycling.
4. Discussion with the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee (JLARC) and the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) regarding the JLARC briefing report on the PSP.

And Tuesday is a big day: At 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. we’ll have the Supreme Court live — these are the last of their spring docket, and then they’re back in September.

Also Tuesday: U.S. Sen. Cantwell’s health care forum in Seattle with Gov. Gregoire and a panel of health experts from all sides. We’ll televise in on Thursday.

Tags: climate change, gambling, healthcare

Gov. Chris Gregoire and other governors will continue their efforts in helping reform healthcare tomorrow, with meetings in Washington, D.C.

Gregoire will meet with President Barack Obama to discuss “the need for national health reform” and give him a report on her participation in the Regional White House Health Care Forum that she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hosted. She’ll also meet with a bipartisan group of governors with Kathleen SEbelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, and Valerie Jarret, a White House senior advisor.

Stay tuned tomorrow for details.

Tags: healthcare

There’s a meeting tomorrow from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Olympia at the General Administration auditorium on the Capitol campus for health care “stakeholders.” There, they’ll discuss what criteria they should use and how they should go about booting 40,000 people from the state’s Basic Health Plan.

From the e-mail sent to stakeholders: “Basic Health must reduce enrollment by 42% for the 2009-2011 budget cycle. For the first time in our history, we must disenroll members even if they are current on their premium payments and their account is in good standing. This means approximately 40,000 members will be disenrolled by January 1, 2010.”

The bill allowing the plan to disenroll policyholders also bars those who receive medical benefits through the Department of Social and Health Services from having the Basic Health Plan. That means between now and August, BHP administration will work to cull everyone out of their system who receives DSHS benefits.

What’s it mean for you? If you’re one of the 99,580 Washingtonians who are on the Basic Health Plan, there’s a nearly 40 percent chance you’ll be kicked off the program and will have to find another means of coverage soon. And if you’re receiving health benefits from DSHS and are on BHP, you’ll most certainly stop getting BHP coverage.

Stay tuned. We’ll have an update as soon as we know what they plan to do.

Tags: basic health plan, healthcare

That and many other questions will be answered (and/or addressed) in tonight’s edition of The Impact. Here’s what host Jennifer Huntley has to say about it:

It’s down to the last couple of days for the 2009 Legislative session. A deal may be imminent on the budget. Will lawmakers get out on time? We’ll talk with members of the media and get their thoughts on what will happen as session winds down.

Also – should felons be allowed to vote if they haven’t paid their legal fees? That and some other voting measures are making their way through the Legislature. We’ll detail how the voting rules would change and talk with lawmakers on both sides of this issue.

And a sales tax proposal is getting a lot of attention this last week. It would buy back some of the cuts to healthcare in the budget. But does it have the votes to pass in the House and Senate and go to voters? We’ll talk with Representative Eric Pettigrew, who is sponsoring the legislation in the House and Senator Cheryl Pflug in the Senate.

The Impact will air during a break in floor session this evening and anytime online at www.tvw.org And I’ll post it here as soon as it’s available!

Tags: Budget, healthcare, The Impact, voting

Rep. Eric Pettigrew, continued from post below: “If you had asked me, I’d rather have tax reform. But, given that and given that people need us — htey need us right now. I’m not talking about 10 years from now,” he said. “With that, I urge this body to vote for this so we can move it on to the public and they’ll decide.”

The committee then voted on the bill: 8 yes, 7 no. It passed.

(The first time the clerk announced the vote, she tranposed the numbers: 8 nay, 7 aye. There was an audible gasp in the room before several representatives pointed out that she flipped the numbers.)

Tags: healthcare, tax

The House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee is back from caucus and is now working on the bill to increase the sales tax by .3 percent to cover healthcare.

Now, for debate:

Rep. Joe Schmick: “Well, it seems here we are in Olympia and it’s the same old story: We’re going to have to raise taxes,” he said. “These taxes are scheduled to go away in a few years but the spending never does.”

Rep. Eileen Cody: “We have really gone over this budget and I do believe that providing healthcare … is one of the priorities of government,” she said. “The way we have our healthcare set up now, tied to employment, is a problem — we all know that.”
(more…)

Tags: healthcare, tax

I just arrived at the hearing in the House Health & Human Services Appropriations Committee for Rep. Eric Pettigrew’s proposal to increase the sales tax by .3 percent temporarily. The money would go toward health care.

They just went over a few amendments and now they’re breaking for caucus. The hearing is live on TVW and tvw.org and I’ll be here the whole time.

Tags: healthcare, tax

Over the weekend, there was quite a lot of talk about will-they-or-won’t-they pass a tax. All we know: Tomorrow at 8 a.m., the House Health and Human Services committee will meet for an executive session on the proposal to increase sales tax by 0.3 percent in order to fund health care.

The hearing will be live on TVW.

Tags: healthcare, tax

The Impact’s host, Jennifer Huntley, sends this dispatch about the show this week, which airs tonight on TVW at 7 and 10 p.m. (or online):

We’ve got a big show this week with a lot of information:

• State employees will likely pay more for their health benefits when the state’s next two-year budget comes out. Find out what other cuts programs are facing when we talk with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt.
• Also, town hall meetings across the state this past weekend gave lawmakers a chance to talk about the budget. Are taxes something voters are likely to consider? What cuts are they most concerned about? We’ll take you to one of the meetings and ask lawmakers what they heard.
• And as the budget starts to take shape, we’re taking your questions on cuts to social service programs to lawmakers in the house.

Tags: Budget, healthcare, The Impact