Lawmakers Pass ‘Drive-Through Delivery’ Bill

The Legislature gave final approval Monday to a bill that seeks to help new mothers by requiring insurers to cover hospitalization until a doctor says they can go home.

Known as the “drive-through delivery” bill, the measure now goes to the governor’s desk.

The original Senate bill included more specifics: Mothers who deliver vaginally would have been covered for a hospital stay up to two days at a doctor’s request, while mothers who undergo a Caesarean section could have up to four days.

But House Republicans rewrote the bill and dropped the specifics, saying it was better to let doctors determine the length of a hospital stay.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Kevin Quigley, D-Lake Stevens, reluctantly asked his Senate colleagues to go along, saying the revised version will at least send a message to insurance companies.

“Politics being what it is, I’m always willing to accept half a loaf instead of a whole loaf,” he said in a brief speech on the Senate floor. “Unfortunately, this bill leaves us with just a slice.”

Gov. Mike Lowry supported the original bill and won’t decide whether to sign the final version until his staff finishes reviewing it. However, Lowry spokesman Jordan Dey called it “a step in the right direction.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control has reported that the average hospital stay for new mothers dropped from 3.9 days to 2.1 days between 1970 and 1992. More recently, critics have reported that insurance companies are pressuring doctors and hospitals to hold some women 24 hours or less.

In other developments:

Juvenile justice

The House proposal to send hundreds of teenage lawbreakers to adult courts and prisons is all but dead, a victim of strong Senate opposition and finally, the clock.

With just three days before adjournment of the 1996 session, a House-Senate conference committee has yet to form and meet on the complex and emotional issue.

“We’re still willing to talk, but it doesn’t look too promising,” House Law and Justice Chairman Larry Sheahan, R-Rosalia, said Monday. Sen. Adam Smith, D-SeaTac, who is Sheahan’s counterpart in the Senate, agreed.

The inaction follows frequent vows by Republican House leaders that harsher treatment of juvenile offenders would be a top priority this year.

Sheahan and House Majority Leader Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchee, both argue that juvenile offenders have figured out how to manipulate a system geared more to rehabilitation than punishment. “People are fed up with it,” Sheahan has said.

But Smith and his colleagues argue that the answer isn’t a wholesale shift of several hundred young people a year into the adult system.

“I don’t think it is time to throw out rehabilitation,” Smith said.

The Democrats also balk at the cost of the House measure, an estimated $34.77 million to the state and $14 million to the counties over the next five years.

The measure, HB2219, would have 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds be automatically tried and punished in the adult system for serious offenses ranging from robbery to assault.

Fish and Wildlife Commission

The appointments of two people to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission are being held up by a Senate panel.

A voice vote in the Senate Natural Resources Committee last Thursday appeared to advance the confirmations of Jolene Unsoeld and Roger Contor to the full Senate. However, that vote is not considered official until the majority of the panel members indicate their vote in writing.

Six signatures are required for the nominations to move forward, but as of Monday not enough had signed, said Sen. Kathleen Drew, D-Issaquah, committee chairwoman.

With only three days left in the legislative session, Drew said it’s unlikely the nominees will be confirmed.

The panel has also refused to vote to confirm Joseph DeLaCruz, a Quinault tribal elder. His nomination has drawn fire from hunting and fishing groups who say it would be a conflict of interest for an Indian to serve on a board involved in negotiations with the tribe. Republicans were opposed to all three nominees, preferring to let the next governor select his or her own appointees.