Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington recently reversed their blanket policy excluding breast augmentation as a treatment for gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for transgender men and women. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner found that the policy discriminated against transgender women since chest reconstruction for transgender men and cisgender women following mastectomy would be...
Category: News
The Federal Government is Busy Reviewing “Gag Rule” Comments
Over 204,000 comments(!) were submitted on proposed changes to the Title X program at the end of July. NoHLA commented on the grave impacts that the proposed rules would have on program effectiveness and low-income populations and urged them not to be adopted. The Department of Health & Human Services also received comments from Washington...
Washington Receives Grant to Review Coverage of Mental Health and Addiction Services
A new federal grant of $284,135 will allow the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) to evaluate if health insurers in Washington offer comprehensive and affordable health coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatments. Under the grant, the OIC will study health plan benefit design, insurers’ policies and procedures for coverage of these...
In the Top 5 for Kids Health Care!
For the third year in a row, the KIDS COUNT Project finds Washington State in 5th place among states for children’s health care. Kudos to the Health Coalition for Children and Youth for their many years of advocacy and to children’s health care providers across the state. Only 3% of Washington children remain uninsured –...
The Ongoing Effort to Undermine the Affordable Care Act
The latest threat to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a huge reduction in funding for navigators in states using the federal marketplace. These are local people who help individuals and their families enroll in Medicaid and Exchange coverage. We didn’t call it huge for nothing – navigators have been cut 84% since 2016(!).Fortunately, Washington...
Washington State Waiver Amendment Facilitates Treatment of Substance Use Disorders
Many states are applying for five-year waivers to receive federal funds for inpatient treatment of adults age 21-64 in Institutions of Mental Disease (IMDs) with more than 16 beds. Washington State received federal approval of an amendment to their existing Medicaid waiver last week. The waiver amendment will allow the state to maintain and expand...
Washington State Stands Up for Women’s Health
First Lady Trudi Inslee penned an op-ed in The Seattle Times about how Washington is strengthening our efforts to expand women’s health care. In a new initiative, the Department of Health is partnering with Upstream USA to provide sustainable tracking and technical assistance to approximately 300 public and private health centers over the next four...