Jay Inslee has been a strong progressive on a wide range of issues from Affirmative Action, to support for reproductive choice, and healthcare. Jay is not just a single issue candidate, as his solid record of accomplishments here in Washington State prove.
BY JESSIE HELLMANN
The new health care plans -- which will cover standard services and be available to all state residents by 2021 -- are expected to be up to 10 percent cheaper than private insurance.
When signing the bill into law, Inslee tied in his presidential ambitions, calling the public option a “template” for the U.S. Several states, like Colorado and Minnesota, are also exploring the public-option insurance route.
“Washington does offer a chance to test that on a smaller scale,” said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “As Washington moves forward, it will help provide a test case for how a broader initiative could play out.”
Participation in the plans will be voluntary for insurers and health care providers, who are necessary for the public option to work. Hospitals have longed complained that other public plans like Medicare and Medicaid don't pay high enough rates.
"It could be that state examples show this kind of policy would be more effective at the national level," said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a managing director at the consulting firm Manatt Health.
The federal government has more levers it can pull to make a public option work, like control of the Medicare program, she said.
Inslee’s plan is likely to win over people who now prefer to keep their current employer provided health insurance, as they see the Public Option healthcare is comparable in quality, and coverage, at a lower cost.