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Victory! WashingtonCAN Helps Expand Health Care Coverage For Kids
Protecting Medicaid
At a rally in Olympia, a WashingtonCAN member holds a sign that highlights just one of the reasons we opposed co-pays for Medicaid recipients
WashingtonCAN led the charge to keep legislators from asking the poorest residents in our state to solve the budget crisis. Facing a $2 million shortfall in this year’s budget, both the State House and Senate suggested solving the problem by mandating prescription drug co-pay’s for Medicaid recipients.
In response, WashingtonCAN members took action! Working in coalition with the Statewide Poverty Network, Children’s Alliance, and Planned Parenthood, WashingtonCAN members mobilized— they called the legislative hotline daily to express deep concern about the effects of these co-pays, they wrote letters to the editor to share their views, and they rallied in Olympia to show their opposition.
OUR VOICE WAS HEARD!! The strong outpouring of community support helped show legislators that prescription drug co-pays for Medicaid recipients just don’t make sense.
Here are a few reasons that legislators agreed to remove these dangerous co-pays from their budget proposals:
- Everyone pays the price for co-pays. When people can’t afford health care, they have no choice but to forgo treatment. The inability to afford preventative care leads to more emergency room visits, a costly and desperate option. This raises health care costs for everyone. So, in the end, we all wind up paying more.
- Co-pay’s just don’t add up. Though originally suggested as a source of revenue for the state, the enactment of co-pays for Medicaid recipients in the early 1990’s had just the opposite effect. The increased number of emergency room visits by Medicaid patients actually cost the state money rather than providing any additional income. Co-pays only harm the health of the state’s most vulnerable population.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR MEMBERS AND COALITION PARTNERS FOR FIGHTING TO ENSURE THAT OUR STATE BUDGET ISN’T BALANCED ON THE BACKS OF THE POOR!
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A History of Success!
Activist and financial support from the grassroots, members like you, led to our many accomplishments.
