The Washington State Legislature passed the Washington Health Partnership plan (WHPP) on April 21st. On May 18th, the WHPP was partially vetoed, but signed into law, by Governor Chris Gregoire.

The WHPP establishes a working group tasked with reaching goals set forth by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access. Click here to read the final report published in January of 2007.

This includes extending coverage to individuals below 200 percent of the federal poverty level in an Apple Health program for adults.

The Apple Health program for kids has at its core a goal of ensuring health coverage for all children by 2010. It streamlines applications for childrens health coverage so parents are aware of their child’s eligibility, including the 75,000 children in Washington that are currently without coverage.

The bill digest describes the goals of the bill as follows:

“Creates the Washington health partnership plan to attain
the following goals:

(1) By 2012, every resident of this state
shall have access to affordable, comprehensive health care
services;
(2) Services shall be provided through the private health
care sector;
(3) The health reform plan shall maintain and improve
choice of health care providers and high quality health care
services in this state; and
(4) The health reform plan shall include cost-containment
strategies that retain and assure affordable coverage for all
Washingtonians.

Requires the department of social and health services to
submit a request to the federal department of health and human
services to expand and revise the medical assistance program
as codified in Title XIX of the federal social security act.”

All of the substantive portions of the bill were passed. Only a section requiring quarterly meetings of an advisory board was vetoed by Governor Gregoire.

The bill went into effect on July 26, 2009.

Read the WHPP here.

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