March 6, 2009

House passes expensive, misguided children's health care bill
'This legislation stretches our safety net to the breaking point and hurts our truly vulnerable citizens,' says Hinkle

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, spoke against legislation on the floor of the House of Representatives this evening that would place more Washington families on government run health programs.  The bill would add families with household incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently around $66,000 a year, to our state health care rolls.

"Here we are with an ever-growing $8 billion budget deficit and we're talking about adding state health care programs for children whose families make more than $66,000 per year?" Hinkle said.  "We can't continue to add to our safety net without someone falling out.  If there's one thing we need to do this year it's to define our safety net, which we haven't done well, historically.  In fact, what we've done is stretched our safety net so far that people are falling through the middle -- people that we have a moral and ethical obligation to help.

"This legislation continues to stretch our safety net to the breaking point and hurts our truly vulnerable citizens," Hinkle said.

House Bill 2128 attempts to place more families on government run health care programs, including families with household incomes over 300 percent of poverty level, which is currently over $66,000 for a family of four.

"This idea that somehow children belong to us as a state agency, instead of to their parents, has to stop," Hinkle said.  "Let's go out and find the most vulnerable people, that's where we should be putting our money.  But for us to spend this kind of money to try to provide for insurance for kids that are clearly middle class kids, this seems crazy to me.

"Folks in my district are wondering how we're spending money down here.  We can find all kinds of good things to spend money on, and none of us would ever say that children don't need to have health insurance.  We would all agree there," continued Hinkle.  "At some point, though, we have to stop what we've done in this state and throughout this country where we have built a sense of entitlement throughout society where government is the first place we go when we have some trouble or some kind of problem."

Hinkle said he strongly disapproves of how the private sector health care market has been kicked to the curb in Washington state.

"Private sector health care has got to be part of the solution," Hinkle said.  "We've put so many mandates on health care providers and we've limited the options a family has in the private market place, and yet the private sector is still there, trying to make it work.  But now the state, with its seemingly endless supply of taxpayer dollars, is going to ramp up the competition and force more insurance carriers to leave Washington."

Hinkle also said he fears of a "crowd out" scenario, where families currently purchasing health care through their employers or through the private market place will now try to get on the state-sponsored plan.  In doing so, Hinkle said, they could end up taking spots that should go to people who really need state assistance.

"The law of unintended consequences rules the day again," Hinkle said.  "We're continuing to foster our society's addiction to entitlement programs.  And the end result will be that some family somewhere that really, truly needs our help will go without it." 

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