Over the past few decades, Washington has become one of the most liberal states in the country. This is mostly attributable to the population explosion west of the Cascade Mountains in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties. The people of Central and Eastern Washington, except for downtown Spokane, are considered to be conservative and limited government advocates.

HB 2729 would seem to contradict this idea. Sponsored by a group of representatives from outstate Washington, HB 2729 targets one specific hospital in Central Washington for enhanced Medicaid payments. (here)

As background, the federal government designates small, rural hospitals with less than 25 beds as critical access hospitals. These facilities have different government regulations and reimbursements. Washington state currently has a total of 39 critical access hospitals.

HB 2729 would provide Medicaid payments of 150 percent of customary Medicaid fee-for-service reimbursements to hospitals with less than 70 beds. Buried in the fiscal note is the fact that only one Washington hospital, Toppenish Community Hospital, qualifies for these enhanced Medicaid payments. The fiscal note estimates a cost to taxpayers of over $3 million per year.

Although hospital associations oppose “Medicare for All,” they strongly support Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion as allowed by Obamacare. (here) One of the driving concerns is more money through Medicaid for rural hospitals. It turns out that even with the Medicaid expansion, larger rural hospitals still have trouble staying open without further taxpayer support.

Rather than look for meaningful solutions to our unsustainable health care entitlements (here), our elected officials, even conservatives, simply want to throw more taxpayer money at the problem. This is not fair to taxpayer or to the communities that need definitive solutions to our health care crisis.