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Our 2023 Legislative Agenda
Expand Funding to Support the Universal Health Care Commission’s Work
Health Care for All-Washington (HCFA-WA) is requesting funding for a full-time staff and consultant services to support the Universal Health Care Commission’s Financial Technical Advisory Committee to develop options for a unified health care financing system for all Washingtonians.
Universal Health Care Commission
Senate Bill 5399 established the Washington Universal Health Care Commission (UHCC) to establish the preliminary infrastructure to create a unified health care system to provide coverage for all Washington residents, once the necessary federal authority has been acquired. The UHCC’s 2022 report to the Legislature included: an overview of Washington's existing health care finance and delivery system; a preliminary assessment of the state's current level of preparedness for a unified financing system; and, recommendations for increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers to a rate equal to 80 percent of Medicare rates.
Financial Technical Advisory Committee
The UHCC has established a nine-member Financial Technical Advisory Committee (FTAC) to provide options for developing a financially feasible model to implement universal health care coverage using state and federal funds. The UHCC and FTAC will explore unified financing systems proposed in the Universal Health Care Work Group’s 2021 report. UHCC’s 2022 report outlined some 23 areas for the FTAC to explore, including: program eligibility; benefit and cost-sharing design options; methods for including Medicare beneficiaries and ERISA employees; administrative reduction options; and financial modeling of various design and revenue options.
HCFA Request
To ensure sufficient staff support and actuarial and forecasting resources to address the 23 tasks outlined in the report, HCFA-WA is requesting the Governor’s 2023-25 carry forward funding of $736,000 be expanded to $1,243,000. The additional $507,000 would pay for one additional full-time FTE dedicated to the FTAC and the hiring of consultants with actuarial and health economic simulation modeling expertise.
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