Gov. Jay Inslee released his 2020 supplemental budget yesterday. The good news for hospitals and health systems is that his budget doesn’t call for any major health care funding cuts nor new taxes. It also makes modest investments in health care, including continued support of the governor’s 5-year plan to decentralize long-term civil commitment patients. It is a typical supplemental budget in that it makes spending adjustments rather than call for large, new spending increases.
WSHA is disappointed the budget does not appropriate funding for WSHA’s key budget priorities, including difficult-to-discharge patients in need of memory care, the Medicaid long-term mental health rate increase, and intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs. Please read our latest edition of Inside Olympia for more information, including line-item highlights.
Gov. Inslee’s budget utilizes all forecasted revenue and does not propose to raise any new revenue. The budget’s major components focus on addressing the homelessness crisis, expanding early learning and combatting climate change.
This year’s “short” 60-day legislative session (for the second half of the current biennium) begins Jan. 13.
