State to cut number of low-income people on Basic Health

OLYMPIA — 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, 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. Christine 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.

Hill noted this is the third round of cuts for his agency since the summer, and that layoffs are a possibility. In addition to reducing the Basic Health Plan, the authority is ending a project to replace a 30-year-old computer system that handles public employee-insurance transactions, and will end the Health Insurance Partnership, a plan to help small businesses offer coverage to workers.