Washington’s Health Plan for Low-Income Residents Needs ‘Straightening Out’, Editorial Says

Washington state residents who are enrolled in the state's Basic Health plan but have annual incomes that make them "too prosperous to qualify" for the benefit "should be removed" from the program, a Seattle Times editorial states (Seattle Times, 2/12). The Basic Health plan serves uninsured, low-income residents who do not qualify for Medicaid. Under the program, families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level -- about $35,300 for a family of four -- can purchase health insurance on a sliding scale, with premiums for a family of four ranging from $20 to $119 per month (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/19/01). A state audit found some 7,000 of the 130,978 Basic Health beneficiaries had reported to the state less income than what other sources showed and thus should not have qualified for the program. About 37,000 beneficiaries did not provide enough information to allow the state Health Care Authority, which administers the program, to verify the annual incomes they reported (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/12). The editorial maintains that "administrative sloppiness" has left some 4,105 people who actually qualify for the program on a waiting list. Other "victims" of the eligibility problem are state taxpayers who fund the Basic Health plan and "beneficiaries of all other state programs [who] have had to" endure service cuts because of a $1.1 billion state budget gap while the Basic Health plan has been unaffected. "All would benefit from straightening out the Basic Health plan," the editorial states. The editorial commends Basic Health plan managers who have "promise[d] to do better" and concludes, "State-provided health insurance is not a right, but a benefit" (Seattle Times, 2/12).