The Legislature’s top health care officials urged U.S. Rep. Brian Baird Thursday to support the health care reform proposal before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sen. Karen Keiser, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, and Rep. Eileen Cody, who heads the House Health and Wellness Committee, told Baird he should seize the opportunity to help Washington state control the rising cost of health care by backing a plan that has been “decades in the making.”

“With the escalation of health care costs at the state level, we need to take positive action now to control costs, reduce the number of uninsured, and produce better outcomes,” Keiser and Cody wrote in a three-paragraph letter.

“With exponential costs projected, we cannot afford to wait before making fundamental changes in our health care system,” they wrote. “The current plan before you makes necessary changes that will allow us to manage health care costs, increase access, and still fulfill the many requirements of Washington state government.”

The Legislature is meeting in special session in Olympia this week to consider steep cuts in many state programs, including health care for the low-income uninsured, in order to bridge a $2.8 billion budget deficit.

Baird said Wednesday he would not decide how to vote on the House plan until he has read the bill and has reviewed how the Congressional Budget Office assesses its fiscal impact.

Both the bill and its “scoring” by the CBO were made public Thursday.

A spokesman for Baird said Thursday he is not ready to announce how he will vote.

Print this article