A grassroots organization recently submitted a bill that would establish universal health insurance in Washington State.
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Whole Washington is working to establish a universal health care system at the state level. He filed an initiative with the legislature on March 23 that would create an all-inclusive health insurance plan. I-1471 would create an insurance program that would cover all health services for Washingtonians, regardless of citizenship status, Whole Washington campaign manager Andre Stackhouse said.
“If you’re a resident, you’ll be covered whether you’re a documented citizen or not,” Stackhouse said. “You wouldn’t need personal expenses or private insurance. Funding must be public and transparent. It will be financed by progressive taxation.
Whole Washington has filed proposals for similar initiatives in previous years, but I-471 presents the strongest case for legislative support yet, due to the group’s efforts to simplify the funding structure of the I-471. initiative and more inclusive language, Stackhouse said. It also includes a role for the state Universal Health Care Commission in forming a health trust board. the commission formed after Senate Bill 5399 was passed in the 2021 legislative session and tasked with creating a health care system that provides coverage for all residents.
Initiatives proposed for the whole of Washington in previous years have been introduced in the Senate, but stalled in the chamber. Health and Long Term Care Committeesaid Stackhouse.
“They were presented to the Senate, and over the years we’ve had seven co-sponsors in the Senate,” he said. “We have nine endorsers in the House, but [our bills have] never been presented to the House.
All of Washington will this month begin seeking signatures for a petition in support of universal health insurance. The group will need to collect 400,000 signatures in order to put the proposal on the 2023 general election ballot for residents to vote. The group will be able to acquire signatures from May to December.
Whole Washington is working on several outreach efforts to publicize the petition. The group will host a screening of filmmaker Michael Moore’s documentary “Sickon Saturday at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma. The documentary compares America’s for-profit healthcare system to universal healthcare systems in other countries. Moore will speak with visitors via a Zoom call ahead of the film’s screening, Stackhouse said. Members of the group will seek petition signatures at the event, which will run from 9 a.m. to noon. Tickets are not required for the event, but those interested can RSVP at wholewashington.org.
Whole Washington held a march for Medicare For All on July 24, 2021, when Seattle joined several cities across the country in marches to raise awareness of the benefits of universal healthcare systems. Stackhouse hopes to plan another walk in the future.
“July 30 will be the birthday of [the establishment of] Health Insurance,” he said. “There will almost certainly be marches across the country, and hopefully there will be one in Seattle.”
Petitions were distributed at last summer’s march, but complications from the COVID-19 pandemic eventually halted the search for signatures, so they were not put to a initiative vote for general elections. But Stackhouse hopes the outreach efforts will lead to acquiring the 400,000 votes needed to put the initiative on the 2023 ballot.
“We hadn’t collected signatures for a few years before, and it’s important to get back there,” he said. “A big part of what we do is find supporters; we found a lot of new supporters [at the march]. The size of our supporter database has doubled after our last campaign.
Stackhouse estimated that the last campaign garnered less than 50,000 signatures.
Establishing a universal health care system at the state level could also play a role in creating a federal system, Stackhouse said.
“I think the federal and state universal health care movements are connected,” he said. “They rise and fall together, and they feed off each other. I think we’ll probably get it at the state level first. There are no committee meetings where he can be killed. If we fail, we know why; it’s because we didn’t have the numbers. The fact that it provides such a clear and open path to implementation gives us a certain advantage. We can lobby legislators. But ultimately, it will require a ton of public support.
