OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The governor wants to cut it. Democrats want to save it. Republicans want to trim it.
The state’s health care program for the poor is on life support. Since 1987, the Basic Health Plan has survived through thick and thin and down economic times, but the state’s budget is struggling to sustain it now.
Four weeks after this year’s legislative session started, ideas are plenty on how to save the Basic Health Plan, which provides subsidized health care for 55,000 poor Washingtonians.
Democrat leaders, though, have come to one decision: They want to keep Basic Health alive until 2014 — the year the federal health care program is scheduled to start.
