Hospital execs: I-1033 hurts health plan

Imagine that your future household budget was pegged to your income the year you took a pay cut.

Imagine that your spending could rise only in tandem with the rate of inflation — even if you suddenly needed to replace your roof or the water heater went bust.

Imagine, too, that your budget would be strictly set according to family size — regardless of whether your household grows because you marry someone with a lucrative career or your elderly father moves in.

In much the same way as that would devastate a family's finances, Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 would puncture the health-care safety net for state residents, according to hospital executives and others who gathered Thursday to oppose the Nov. 3 ballot measure.

The measure seeks to rein in government spending by linking the amount of new revenue that governments can collect to inflation, plus population growth.

Critics say the initiative would severely curtail government services because as a baseline it uses budget coffers already reduced by the recession. What's more, Initiative 1033 relies on an inflation formula that largely excludes the steep rise in the cost of health care and education. That, critics say, essentially handcuffs government agencies from expanding services — let alone restoring cuts to subsidized health insurance or reopening shuttered parks.

The Washington State Hospital Association estimates that passage of the initiative would force its members to cut nearly 9,000 jobs by 2015. Among the hardest hit would be hospitals that provide the bulk of the region's charity care for indigent patients, including Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center and Seattle Children's.

Initiative 1033 "would devastate hospitals," said Dr. Rod Hochman, chief executive of Swedish Medical Center, speaking at a news conference. "We are joining hundreds of organizations around the state in saying 'no.' "

Swedish is one of several health-care companies to each give $25,000 to a campaign to defeat the initiative. Others include Seattle's Group Health Cooperative, Seattle Children's, Virginia Mason Medical Center and MultiCare Health System of Tacoma.

Scott Whiteaker, spokesman for No on 1033, contends that confusion may account for some voter support for the measure.

"A lot of the support comes from not understanding the implications," Whiteaker said.

The initiative could save Washingtonians $8 billion in property taxes between 2011 and 2015 by diverting it from local, county and state general revenues, according to the governor's budget office.

But such tax relief would carry steep costs, warned Teresita Batayola, chief executive of International Community Health Services, which operates low-cost health clinics.

Batayola said a third of her patients are covered by the Basic Health Plan, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor. Initiative 1033, she said, would stretch the waiting list for Basic Health beyond the current 66,000 people and even eliminate the program altogether.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com