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Washington state’s effort to achieve healthcare reform got a shot in the arm last week from two national foundations that are pumping $1.5 million into an effort to bring about universal coverage.
The Washington Community Action Network and the Children’s Alliance announced Feb. 7 that each has received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson and David and Lucile Packard foundations, respectively. Washington is one of only four states in the nation to receive both grants — a sign that the state “is positioned to make major advances in covering everyone,” said Cindy Mann, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, during a conference call to announce the grants.
The grants will fund each group’s work on two national projects. One is the Johnson Foundation’s Consumer Voices for Coverage, which will support a Washington CAN effort to educate Washingtonians about various healthcare proposals in order to bolster overall support for reform. The other is the Packard Foundation’s Finish Line Project, which will help the Children’s Alliance ensure that the legislature fully enacts SB 5093, a landmark 2007 bill that promised to cover all children in the state. But the legislation, said Teresa Mosqueda of the Children’s Alliance, is only about 40 percent implemented.
The legislature is currently working to enact at least limited healthcare reform based on 2006 recommendations made by a blue-ribbon commission convened by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Companion bills that would create a citizens’ work group to examine certain health care models — 2536 in the House and 6333 in the Senate — have also passed out of each body’s healthcare committee.
“This is an important step that I think will begin the process of engaging the public and stakeholders in how we go about achieving healthcare reform in Washington state,” said Sen. Karen Keiser (D-Kent) sponsor of SB 6333. “The landscape for health care reform in [this] state is aligning really well for real change.” |
