Oregon Public Broadcasting

Healthcare advocates in Washington state are issuing a blunt message to lawmakers: don’t play a shell game with the federal stimulus money.

They say the roughly two billion dollars the state is expected to get in federal Medicaid funds should be spent on healthcare and healthcare alone. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Here’s the scenario medical providers fear. Washington state gets the $2 billion and puts it toward healthcare for poor people. But then takes state dollars that are currently being spent on Medicaid and spend that money elsewhere – for instance on education or other social programs.

Rebecca Kavoussi is with the Community Health Network of Washington. She says that would be uncool.

Rebecca Kavoussi: “Where we’re saying that money that’s freed up should go is towards programs that don’t receive federal money like Basic Health or the General Assistance Unemployable program. These are healthcare programs that are serving the same purpose at Medicaid albeit for slightly different populations.”

Governor Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget cuts nearly a billion dollars from healthcare. Advocates are warning that 150,000 more people could be uninsured in Washington by the end of the year – due to cuts and layoffs.