OLYMPIA – State officials think they can save $14 million over the next five years and provide better health care to a group of patients who are among the most expensive to treat. Washington received a waiver Thursday from the federal government to start a new program for people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. The state hopes to put about 30,000 so-called dual-eligibles into a single program that provides someone to coordinate their care, reducing costs that arise from conflict between the programs.

WASHINGTON – Starting today, nearly 1.1 million women in Washington state will no longer be charged a co-pay for birth control, HIV screening and several other health care services under the Affordable Care Act. The 2010 law requires insurance companies to fully cover preventive services in eight categories for women whose health plans begin or are renewed on or after Aug. 1.

Pressing an election-year point, Republicans pushed yet another bill through the House on Wednesday to repeal the nation's two-year-old health care law, a maneuver that forced Democrats to choose between President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement and a public that is persistently skeptical of its value. The vote was 244-185, with five Democrats defectors siding with Republicans.

OLYMPIA – In a world of emails and tweets, it’s usually nice to get a real letter. Except, maybe, if it’s a letter telling you to do something that you’ve already said you aren’t gonna do, or not do something you’ve said you will. This is the case with the letter that U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and a cohort of Republican senators and congresspersons sent to Gov. Chris Gregoire, urging her and her 49 fellow governors to “join us in resisting a centralized government approach to health care reform.”