SEATTLE (AP) — About 70,000 Washington residents who do not speak English fluently may lose access to interpreters during medical visits under a proposed budget cut.
The $3.3 million cut in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s emergency budget would completely eliminate a state-funded program that subsidizes interpreter services to medical clinics and hospitals who serve Medicaid patients.
Gregoire and lawmakers are dealing with a state budget with an estimated $5.7 billion deficit in the roughly $33 billion two-year general fund.
Department of Social and Health Services spokesman Jim Stevenson says the program cut is part of a plan to cut $113 million from DSHS spending.
The interpreter and medical industry says cutting the program would shift the cost of hiring interpreters to doctors, hospitals and clinics, or it will be another reason for health care providers to stop serving Medicaid patients.
