Save the Date for the HCFA-WA Annual Meeting November 14!
Virtual and/or in-person

• Date & time: Saturday, November 14, 2026, 1:00–4:00 pm
• In person: East Shore Unitarian Church, 12700 SE 32nd Street, Bellevue
• Online: Live on Zoom 

Featured Speaker: Sheldon Toubman, Disability Rights Connecticut

• What if we could deliver better care, cover more people, and save money — all at once? Connecticut did it. Sheldon Toubman helped lead the fight.

Preview our 2027 Legislative Agenda

Hear updates on our committee work

Approve officers and budgets

Come join us in conversation with other Washingtonians on our favorite topic and the hot topic of the day: health care and how we can make it more accessible and affordable for everyone in Washington.

We will be in the Expo Hall, NW Connections - Look for the HCFA-WA banner!

Labor Day Weekend - Sept 4-7
Friday, Sept 18 
Friday, Sept 25

Interested in learning more about single payer? We have advocates throughout the state who look forward to meeting with you and sharing our vision for universal health care in Washington state. 

Let us come to you - or we can meet on Zoom. Invite your friends and family, your neighbors, church, business, community groups, legislative district party meetings - anyone!

Request a speaker here!

Health Care for All – Washington 2nd Wednesday Speaker Series on August 12th at 7 pm: Tamitha Shockley French from CHAS Health

At HCFA-WA's August Second Wednesday program, Tamitha Shockley French, Vice President of Communications and Public Policy at CHAS Health, showed eastern Washington what universal, community-anchored primary care actually looks like on the ground — and why it belongs at the center of Washington's path to universal coverage.

CHAS improves access by design. From a two-exam-room clinic 30 years ago, it has grown to 29 locations across Spokane County plus sites in Moscow, Lewiston, and Clarkston,Idaho, offering medical, dental, integrated behavioral health, on-site pharmacy, urgent care, mobile medical and dental units, and five school-based health centers. In 2025 CHAS served more than 126,000 patients over 500,000 visits — roughly one in five Spokane County residents — and turned no one away.

It reduces inequity as a matter of mission. Eighty percent of CHAS patients live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, 11% are uninsured, and 32% are housing insecure. A sliding-fee scale based only on household income and family size covers every service, including copays and pharmacy. Community Health Workers and Patient Resource Coordinators bridge language, cultural, and system barriers so care actually reaches the people who need it.

It sustains population wellness through team-based, whole-person primary care — the upstream model Senator Marcus Riccelli defended against proposals to retreat to fee-for-service. By catching disease early, integrating behavioral health, and connecting patients to housing, food, and transportation, CHAS reduces avoidable emergency and hospital spending downstream.

And it points the way forward. Community health centers are already everybody-in, nobody-out, bipartisan-supported, and community-governed (51% patient boards). A Washington universal healthcare design should build on this proven infrastructure — protecting Medicaid now, raising primary care reimbursement to the state's own target, and scaling the CHAS model statewide.

Watch now on YouTube

FTAC August Meeting Recap: Launching now! Universal-system Financing Work

The Finance Technical Advisory Committee (FTAC) meeting focused on finalizing provider reimbursement recommendations and beginning work on financing Washington’s future universal health care system. The Commission’s charge includes both near-term transitional reforms and preparation for a unified financing system covering all Washington residents. Provider reimbursement is nearing completion, while financing work is targeted for approximately Q2 2027.

The Commission continues to consider the Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s universal primary care proposal, with a vote expected September. They will also vote on whether to spend $250K in OIC proviso funding to analyze  whether increasing primary care spending to 12% of total medical spending produces systemwide savings as well examining administrative structures for a universal system.

The revised provider reimbursement proposal uses a modular approach in which payment reforms could begin as pilots and expand over time. Its first pathway progressively expands reference-based pricing, beginning with PEBB/SEBB and potentially extending to other public purchasers and commercial payments. Later reforms could include volume adjustments, standby-capacity payments, uncompensated-care support, and hospital global budgets.

The second pathway emphasizes competitive contracting and coordinated state purchasing, potentially bringing PEBB/SEBB, Medicaid, CHIP, behavioral health programs, and Exchange coverage into a more coordinated purchasing structure. Members emphasized that purchasing could be consolidated without necessarily combining risk pools, although significant changes would require actuarial analysis.

Rural health remained an important concern. Members stressed that payment reforms should protect access and financial stability for critical access hospitals, sole community hospitals, rural emergency hospitals, rural health clinics, and federally qualified health centers. Reference-based pricing may therefore require special rates, volume adjustments, or other protections for vulnerable providers.

FTAC then formally launched its universal-system financing work. Initial tasks include developing guiding principles, defining essential financing-plan attributes, evaluating revenue sources that could replace premiums and employer-sponsored insurance financing, and assessing legal risks. Early principles call for financing that is understandable, stable, scalable, adequate, permanent, legally defensible, broadly based, and potentially progressive according to ability to pay.

Financing will now become a major FTAC workstream. The September 3 Universal Health Care Commission meeting will include an advocates roundtable focused on financing and consideration of provider reimbursement proposals. The next FTAC meeting is September 24.

Link to Meeting Materials

Link to Meeting Video

Next Meetings:

UHCC: Thursday, September 3rd  2–5 p.m., Join on Teams

Comment to the UHCC

• Speak during the designated public comment time at UHCC meetings. Sign up to provide public comment by 5 p.m. the day before the meeting occurs. 
• Email [email protected] at any time.  If you submit your comments less than two weeks before a meeting, they will be included in the following meeting’s materials.

We urge our members to push to use OIC proviso funds for economic analysis focused on the entire single-payer universal healthcare system, rather than universal primary care, in their public comments.  

FTAC: Thursday, September 24th 2-4:30 p.m., Join on Teams

Comment to the FTAC 

• Speak during the designated public comment time at FTAC meetings. Sign up to provide public comment by 5 p.m. the day before the meeting occurs. 
• Submit written comments at any time.  If you submit your comments less than two weeks before a meeting, we’ll include them in the following meeting’s materials.

We urge our members to push to use OIC proviso funds for economic analysis focused on the entire single-payer universal healthcare system, rather than universal primary care, in their public comments.  

• Read our take on past UHCC and FTAC meetings

• Subscribe to Health Care Authority (HCA) for updates

Now Available, the Universal Health Care Commission 2025 Annual Report

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SERVING ON THE UHCC? 

Currently, there  are two open seats on the Commission, subject to appointment by the Governor. Candidates should have knowledge and experience regarding health care coverage, access, and financing, or other relevant expertise.  Apply to Serve here

Join the Take Action Network

Even though the Washington  legislative session is over for 2026, 2027 is right around the corner! Stay involved as we continue to drive legislation related to a Universal, single payer health care system!

Join the Take Action Network from the HCFA-WA TAN page 

Together, we can move Washington forward on the pathway to universal health care.

Prior authorization denials vary widely among insurers, first-of-its-kind data shows

Insurers recently had to open the books on prior authorization due to new Federal regulations — and the first look is ugly: denial rates swing from 2% to 25%, most appeals win, and almost nobody appeals. Who's really deciding your care?

WA Cares program is a ray of hope amid a care crisis

WA Cares is a pioneering social‑insurance model for long‑term care. Modest payroll premiums will prevent catastrophic costs and relieve pressure on Medicaid and families.

Commentary: No one who works full time should be on Medicaid

Nine million full-time workers are on Medicaid — many at Fortune 500 employers — while 88 profitable companies paid zero federal tax. Who's really subsidizing whom?   Any WA universal-healthcare financing model must confront how Medicaid currently masks corporate wage suppression — recovering revenue from under-taxed corporate profits is a legitimate financing lever.