OLYMPIA (AP) — The state will begin to reduce the number of people on its Basic Health Plan starting Friday, a money-saving move critics say couldn’t come at a worse time.
The plan, subsidized by taxpayers, covers 105,000 low-income people. The state Health Care Authority plans to lower that number by 7,700 over the next seven months.
After Friday, authority director Steve Hill told The Olympian newspaper, the state will limit enrollments, allowing a new person to receive benefits only if two other people drop off the plan. The goal is to save $6.7 million in the budget year, which ends in June.
The cuts are part of drastic spending reductions ordered by Gov. Chris Gregoire to help balance the state budget.
“We obviously appreciate the magnitude of the problem the state is facing, but feel very strongly that cutting basic health during a recession is exactly the wrong direction,” said Rebecca Kavoussi of the Community Health Network of Washington.
People on the Basic Health Plan pay a fee based on how much they earn. The most an individual can make and qualify is $22,800 a year, and the average cost to taxpayers for each person is $217 a month.
Enrollment in the plan peaked in 2001 at 133,000, but was capped at 100,000 during a budget crunch in 2003. It nearly reached its most recent 106,500-person capacity again last summer.
