February 3, 2010 in City

Medical officials decry plans to cut Basic Health

Concerns include sicker people, more emergencies

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During a press conference Tuesday, Elaine Couture, president and chief operating officer of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, right, listens as Dr. Dave Bare, medical director of the Community Health Association of Spokane, talks about the impacts that proposed state budget cuts would have on local health care.
(Full-size photo)

Health care executives say looming state budget cuts threaten to push thousands more people into the ranks of the uninsured and further strain the region’s clinics and hospitals.

The worries about gutting the state’s Basic Health plan echo a common refrain: Deep cuts are unacceptable and should be partly offset by state tax and fee increases. But wringing more money from taxpayers at a time of high unemployment, pay cuts and shrinking retirement savings would be a difficult sell.

Dave Bare, medical director of the Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) clinics, said removing another 70,000 people from the state-subsidized …

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Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  ballester03 on February 03 at 1:26 a.m.

  Get medical insurance for your entire family at the best price from http://bit.ly/atGzeD

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  Mr. Natural on February 03 at 9:40 a.m.

  Fact is you get what you pay for. For many years the cost of living and the revenues have been out of balance. All you hear is tax cuts and no new taxes and cut backs to social programs so how are you going to be able to afford the quality of social systems, basic health and public health you optimally imagine for your community? Well I for one see this as the result of the short sighted greed of the Eyman initiatives just to identify one major cause for this disparity. This knee-JERK vision of saving a few private bucks in the short term at the expense of the communities’ health has got to be tempered with a better perspective…and mostly a better vision for all and not the bellicose self-indulgence of a few.

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  Lewis on February 03 at 9:42 a.m.

  Medical insurance is a scam. I had basic health until they raised the premium from 55 a month to 190. I had no increase in wages and was simply unable to pay.

  I go to CHAS clinic and they are fantastic even with out insurance I can afford to see a doctor if I need to. I think it was a bad call on Basic health’s part, I was one of many that paid on time and rarely if ever used the insurance. Those are the people they need paying in but not using. Leaves money available for those that do need it.

  It upsets me to no end to know I can’t afford my state low-income insurance while the president of a state college is making a million bucks a year salary.

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