These are dark days for the cause of affordable health care in our state, but they could have been even worse.

At the end of April, the Legislature delivered the 2009—2011 state budget to the Governor, which included billions of dollars in cuts to close our state’s staggering $9 billion deficit. The health care cuts are especially painful. They will inflict serious damage to our state’s health care safety net at a time when growing numbers of people across our state are losing their jobs and access to health coverage:

• The vulnerable will suffer the most, putting even more stress on our health care safety net. Together, with the many people who will lose their jobs in the coming months and the massive $1 billion in cuts to health care, Washington’s uninsured population will swell by 150,000 to a total of nearly 900,000 by 2010. Community health clinics — our state’s primary care safety net — and hospital emergency rooms will have to absorb the rising number of uninsured people. However, community health clinics, which see all patients regardless of their ability to pay, suffered nearly one quarter of the massive budget cuts. This means clinics may have to lay off health care providers and support staff and patients will face increased wait time for services. Emergency rooms will be flooded with uninsured people who can only pay for a fraction of the cost of their care.
• 35,000 people will be kicked off Basic Health by the end of this year. Basic Health is the only affordable insurance option for so many people in Washington — it has been there for people who lose their jobs and insurance coverage. These devastating cuts guarantee that hundreds of thousands of people will have nowhere to turn for affordable coverage.
• The General Assistance - Unemployable program (GA-U) will lose $43 million in funding. Cuts to this program for those who are temporarily disabled are certain to force many people to seek care at emergency rooms, while local communities will be left to pick up the tab for the additional burden on their services.

Click here to read reactions to the state budget.

Without you, it would have been much worse
There was one ray of good news from the legislative session — thanks to you. When you and thousands of other Save Health Care in Washington activists demanded that President Obama’s stimulus funding for our state be used for health care, the Governor and Legislature listened. The final budget directs a large part of the stimulus to help offset the cuts, and this spared health care from even deeper cuts like those suffered in other areas of the budget.

Keep making your voice heard for affordable health care
What can be done now? In the coming year, we’ll seek opportunities to work with elected officials and repair the damage to our state’s health care safety net. Your voice will continue to make a huge difference in our success, and we’ll keep in touch when opportunities arise for you to speak out for affordable health care.

You can also help by inviting your colleagues, friends and family to add their voices to Save Health Care in Washington’s grassroots action program.

Thank you for all you’ve done this legislative session. It was in no way the budget we hoped for, but without you, it would have been much worse.