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Masking requirements for Washington’s health care, long-term care and correctional facilities will end April 3, says the Washington state Department of Health. The ability for those facilities to continue mask precautions and the ability for individuals to keep wearing masks remains, of course, as should be the case. But a state policy requiring what these facilities do about mask-wearing is ending. Meanwhile, Jaime Smith, executive director of communications for the governor, tells me, “There is no current discussion about changes to employee...
Washington state has been granted a waiver to federal law allowing it to offer health insurance and subsidies to noncitizens who unlawfully reside in the United States but who live within Washington state’s borders. The Dec. 9 announcement from the federal government allows the state to suspend a portion of the Affordable Care Act so it can provide access to health insurance to some 105,000 Washington residents who are currently ineligible because of their immigration status. Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement, “This waiver is an imp...
In August, I wrote about Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee negotiating away a COVID-19 booster requirement that he placed on some state workers in June. He said the requirement would bring a public health benefit and “ensure the health of our workforce.” (Never mind that people contract and spread the disease — and can get sick and even die with COVID-19 — regardless of vaccination status. See COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status recorded by King County here.) I was pretty sure money would be involved, as a press release about the labor n...
Right now, the only people who can opt out of the WA Cares Fund, a new long-term-care (LTC) program that is supposed to be fueled by a payroll tax on workers, are those who had private long-term-care insurance (LTCI) purchased by Nov. 1, 2021. Their numbers are below. Our 2019 study on the then-proposed law found that between 2022 and 2053, taxpayers would pay more than $30 billion for the state to realize net savings of just over $1.2 billion. We look forward to a new actuarial report that will be featured at a Nov. 10 Long-Term Services and...
Updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 recommendations will no longer differentiate based on vaccination status. CDC officials told reporters the new guidelines acknowledge that most Americans have some form of protection from the virus (having had prior infection or vaccination), and they are unlikely to become seriously ill. That acknowledgment has yet to be realized by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. He is holding on to his outdated vaccine mandate as a condition of employment, discriminating against...
Vaccine hesitancy has been continuously shamed by Gov. Jay Inslee and was again Saturday in an interview on Crosscut. People who don’t get vaccinated or boosted, according to the governor, are making an irresponsible choice, holding the rest of us back and — listening to Donald Trump. Alternately, getting vaccinated and boosted keeps you and others safe, the governor’s tale goes. That’s the justification, after all, for his discriminatory vaccine mandate on state employees, educators, first responders and other health care workers—a mandate h...
A regressive payroll tax that was supposed to start being taken out of workers’ paychecks in January was delayed this morning. How? The same way Gov. Jay Inslee has been making rules and mandates without the Legislature since Feb. 29, 2020. In a press release with statements from the governor and House and Senate Democratic leadership, Inslee says, “I am taking measures within my authority and ordering the state Employment Security Department not to collect the premiums from this program from employers before they come due in April.” He conti...
The more people hear about Washington’s coming long-term-care law and payroll tax, the less people like it––and for good reason. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against it, an initiative is being pursued, and Idaho sent the state a cease-and-desist order concerning the law that impacts workers who live in other states. Starting in January, the unpopular law imposes a stiff new tax of 58 cents per $100 earned for every worker in the state, with no earned income cap. The money will go to a new state program, called the WA Cares Fund, p...
The button works–for some people! Baby steps. If you have private long-term-care insurance (LTCI) and want to opt out of a new long-term-care payroll tax starting in January, you can apply for an exemption with the state of Washington starting today. Maybe. For those who got in before the site crashed, minutes after it opened, I hear it was easy. I have not had success. Read more about the regressive tax and misguided law that created it here. This law concerning long-term care should be repealed by lawmakers. The new mandate burdens family b...