Candidates differ on kids' coverage

Rossi cut health care for children; Gregoire added to insured

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published October 13, 2008

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Both candidates for governor have had their say on government health insurance for children, and the results are striking.

Under the state budget that Republican Dino Rossi takes pride in helping craft, the number of children covered by state health insurance plummeted by 40,000.

By the end of Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire's first term, the taxpayer-subsidized rolls had not only recovered from that fall, but grew another 32,000.

Few choices by the candidates so clearly altered the lives of residents. And with the state facing a budget shortfall, the voters' choice Nov. 4 will again affect thousands of children who use state insurance, as well as taxpayers who pay the bill.

Rossi's plan

In the spring of 2003, the state was facing a $2.6 billion budget gap, and Rossi was the lead budget writer in the Senate. His party had a slim majority, but aligned with then-Democratic Gov. Gary Locke's no-new-taxes approach.

Rossi's plan, which Locke supported, required families to show their income was low enough to qualify for state help every six months. At the time, families had to renew their status once a year.

Rossi says many of the people didn't belong there, but the state wasn't checking.

"If they found out someone was ineligible, they would let them stay in the system," Rossi said. "This is people's tax dollars. If it was your money, you'd verify it."

Rossi also proposed limiting coverage to poorer families, but was unsuccessful. The ultimate budget, however, did send the state on a quest to charge monthly premiums to families on Medicaid, the state health care program. Doing so would have required approval from the federal government.

The proposal was not popular with many Democrats and advocates for children, and when Rossi ran for governor against Gregoire in 2004, his opponents repeatedly accused him of kicking kids off of health insurance.

"It's kids; it's health care. And yes, the parents didn't qualify, so I guess you could say that," Rossi said recently. "The real bottom line with this is, if Medicare for children was supposed to be for the poor, I don't think people who don't qualify for coverage shouldn't be left on the program for 12 months. For one thing, we don't have the cash."