The state legislative session concluded Sunday, April 27, with lawmakers settling on the final budget for the 2025-2027 biennium. The state was facing a large budget deficit, but we are pleased to report that hospitals have avoided the worst of the cuts and taxes needed to close the gap.
Most notably, we were able to reduce the impact of cuts and policy changes to health care offered through the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) and School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB). While reimbursement limits were enacted, we were able to remove a mandate requiring hospitals to contract with these plans and a further, automatic rate reduction.
We were also able to help implement the Medicaid Access Program. Spearheaded by the Washington State Medical Association, this program will increase Medicaid reimbursement to be similar to Medicare reimbursement levels, which will bring in $200 million per year once it’s implemented, most likely in 2028.
Further, we were able to limit the impact of expanded sales taxes on services. While the taxes were implemented, hospitals are exempt from taxes on temporary staffing, which would have cost $80 million per year.
There were many other harmful measures we were able to defeat, such as the payroll tax, raids to the hospital Safety Net Assessment Program (SNAP) and facility fee cuts.
This year’s session was extraordinarily difficult, with lawmakers facing difficult choices on how to balance the state budget. Thanks to our members’ advocacy, we were able to achieve some notable successes in protecting health care access for patients. To all who testified before lawmakers and took part in our advocacy campaigns, thank you!
Sincerely,
Chelene Whiteaker
WSHA Senior VP, Government Affairs
chelenew@wsha.org