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Hinkle worried that
bipartisan, consensus approach of
Blue Ribbon Commission is being abandoned
13th District legislator wants to know why more
children of
non-citizens
would be enrolled into state-run health care program
Rep. Bill Hinkle,
R-Cle Elum, is worried the bipartisan, consensus approach of the
governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access was
abandoned on the first day of the legislative session. The top ranking
Republican on the House Health Care and Wellness Committee wants to know
why there is a push to enroll at least an additional 5,700 children of
non-citizens into a state-sponsored health care program when it was not
supported before.
The state Children’s Health Program provides medical coverage to
non-citizen children under the age of 18 with family income at or below
100 percent federal poverty level. These children are ineligible for
Medicaid due to immigration status.
House Bill 1071, which was heard in committee on Monday, would change
eligibility for the state’s Children’s Health Program to 250 percent
federal poverty level. This would allow at least 5,700 new non-citizen
children to be enrolled at a cost of millions of dollars each year to
taxpayers.
“We are already facing tremendous challenges administering state health
care programs to low income Washington families. It’s unfathomable we
would want to expand our already stretched resources even further,” said
Hinkle. “This would also be demoralizing to some legal citizens and
families who are struggling to pay premiums and co-pays on their private
health care insurance. There would be a great inequity for these
hard-working folks.”
Hinkle was appointed by the governor to the state’s 12-member Blue
Ribbon Commission in May. The commission met throughout the last half of
the year to look at ways to provide accessible, affordable health care
for state citizens, and just recently submitted a report to the
Legislature.
“I thought the Blue Ribbon Commission was a positive experience in terms
of developing consensus on complex issues – including children’s health
care. But if we don’t carry forth these ideas in way in which they were
previously agreed upon, the process is reduced to a farce,” said Hinkle.
“I’m disappointed that on the very first day of session we saw lawmakers
go back on their words and propose ideas that are not only unpopular,
but unfair to taxpayers and families who are in the need of heath care
assistance.”
The 2007 legislative session began on January 8 and is scheduled to run
105 days.
Hinkle can be contacted at (360) 786-7808 or hinkle.bill@leg.wa.gov.
For more information on Hinkle visit: http://www.houserepublicans.wa.gov/Hinkle/
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