John Webster

In political circles, “Medicaid expansion” has been a phrase that launches arguments. But for uninsured poor people – 22,000 in Spokane County and 328,000 throughout Washington state – expansion means health care coverage is on the way. Washington is one of 25 states to accept the federal government’s offer to fund the expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for America’s poor.

Need health insurance? The Spokesman-Review is looking for a few volunteers to try Washington state’s new Health Plan Finder website, which debuts on Tuesday. The website is a central feature of the federal Affordable Care Act. On it, eight health insurance companies will compete for the public’s insurance-buying dollars. Federal tax credits will reduce the cost of premiums, for those with incomes below 400 percent of the poverty level ($45,960/year for one person, $62,040 for a family of two, $78,120 for a family of three, $94,200 for a family of four).

At 7:30 a.m., the switchboard turned on and immediately the phones began to ring. The callers, from all over Washington state, wanted to know how to qualify for health insurance coverage. They had called the right place. Ready to answer their questions, poised at new computers in a new facility in Spokane Valley, was a roomful of workers who’d been training for this moment, for more than a month.

Two more health insurance companies won approval Friday from state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler to sell policies on the Washington state Health Plan Finder. Required by the federal Affordable Care Act, the Health Plan Finder begins operation Oct. 1 and will be an online marketplace serving individuals who have had trouble getting health insurance coverage.

Two more health insurance companies won approval Friday from state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, to sell policies on the Washington state Health Plan Finder. Required by the federal Affordable Care Act, the Health Plan Finder begins operation Oct. 1 and will be an online marketplace serving individuals who have had trouble getting health insurance coverage.

The state of Idaho on Tuesday unveiled yourhealthidaho.org, a website where Idahoans can get information about the opportunity to purchase subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. For the time being, the site will serve only as a front door to a federal website that will do the technical work of enabling Idahoans to choose among competing insurance plans, apply for federal subsidies and purchase coverage.

The state of Idaho today unveiled yourhealthidaho.org, a website where Idahoans can get information about the opportunity to purchase subsidized health insurance under Obamacare.

The Idaho Legislature will not get its wish for a health insurance exchange website built by and for Idahoans. Not in the first year, anyway. The Legislature’s decision simply came too late.

Obamacare is coming, even to Idaho. While other states including Washington have worked for years to implement it, and now are unveiling comprehensive health coverage options for the uninsured, Idaho’s Republican-controlled state government tried for years to fight it. The long fight left a legacy: Tens of thousands of the poorest of Idaho’s poor will still be without affordable care under the Affordable Care Act. On Oct. 1 the 222,533 Idahoans who have no health insurance will be able to go to a website and seek more comprehensive, affordable coverage than was available in the past. Federal law requires it, and federal taxes will pay for it.

In political circles, “Medicaid expansion” has been a phrase that launches arguments. But for uninsured poor people – 22,000 in Spokane County and 328,000 throughout Washington state – expansion means health care coverage is on the way. Last month, the Legislature made Washington one of 24 states to accept the federal government’s offer to fund the expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for America’s poor.

Washington’s consumers got their first, preliminary look at the cost of “Obamacare” on Tuesday. And the news, for many consumers, was good: Health insurance next year will cover more and cost less. Huge rate increases, predicted by critics and by some health insurance companies, did not materialize. Advocates of the federal reform law had hoped that rates would improve because insurers need to compete with each other on an apples-to-apples basis.

Between 1999 and 2011, health insurance coverage doubled in cost, and a growing share of the nation’s workers no longer could obtain it from their employers. The lack of health coverage is particularly acute at the nation’s small employers and among those who earn lower wages. Those trends and more are outlined in a new report released by the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropic group focused on health care issues. The full text of the 78-page document, including state-by-state data, was set to be made available today at www.rwjf.org/coverage.

Premera Blue Cross, the largest health insurer in Eastern Washington, has toned down earlier warnings of “staggering” rate increases that it had blamed on federal health care reform, but still says individual policies could rise by an average of 15 percent or considerably more.

Historically, health care expansion has a record of winning public support. In England, conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dismantled several nationalized sectors of the economy, returning them to private enterprise. But she did not try to tear apart England’s nationalized health care system – it was too popular. Then and now. Last summer, when London hosted the Olympic Games, the opening ceremony included a prominent celebration of the National Health Service.

Where can Americans find help with health insurance coverage? And P.S. – what’s it going to cost?