The Universal Health Care Commission (UHCC) In this difficult budget year, we were pleased to note that funding levels achieved in 2025 were maintained for the Universal Health Care Commission and for the design of an auto enrollment process for those who lose Medicaid and qualify for Health Benefit Exchange plans.
Faced with Federal cuts to health care, our legislative focus was on increasing patient affordability and access to care, financial stability for providers, relief from administrative burden, and accountability for insurance companies.
Thanks to our many supporters who contacted legislators by email, telephone, and/or signing in “PRO” on the Legislature’s bill pages, these bills are now law!
✅ HB 2548 – Strengthening health care market standards.
Applies the principles of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act to health care entities to protect patients from sudden disruptions and surprise price increases when health care entities change ownership.
✅ SB 5845 - Modernizing and clarifying timely payment requirements for health carriers.
Requires health insurers to pay or deny a “clean claim” from a participating provider or facility within 30 days and to send a notice explaining a denial or a request for additional information for claims that are not “clean” within 21 days.
✅ SB 5395 Making improvements to transparency and accountability in the prior authorization determination process.
Ensures that prior authorization determinations by private health insurance and health plans offered to public or school employees are made by qualified providers with relevant expertise, and will not be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
✅ SB 6103 Making payments for services provided by a rural emergency hospital subject to appropriation.
Supports rural healthcare via the new Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) model and requires legislative approval for REH Medicaid payments.
✅ HB 2242 Preserving access to preventive services.
Shifts the authority for defining which vaccines and other preventive services are covered from federal bodies to the Washington State Department of Health and allows for more flexible, cost-effective purchasing of vaccines.
✅ SB 5981 Protecting the integrity of the 340B drug pricing program.
Prevents drug manufacturers from restricting how safety-net healthcare providers access discounted medications through contract pharmacies, enabling facilities serving rural and/or low-income populations to use drug purchase discounts and pass those savings on to patients. It also keeps patient data confidential from drug manufacturers.
✅ SB 6182 - Establishing an abortion savings program.
Protects access to affordable abortion care for Washington residents by providing grants to maintain access to direct patient abortion clinical care services for individuals in the state, establishing a new assessment on health carriers subject to the insurance premium tax with initial assessments due and payable in 2027, and creating the Abortion Savings Account, where all revenue collected from the new assessment must be deposited.
✅ SB 5917 Improving access to abortion medications.
Strengthens Washington state’s ability to continue to provide reproductive health care by removing requirements that the Department of Corrections (DOC) sell the abortion medications it possesses at a certain cost and instead allows, but does not require, the DOC to obtain payment for any abortion medications it distributes. Modifies the definition of “abortion medications” for these purposes to specifically include mifepristone and misoprostol.
✅ SB 6346 - Establishing a tax on millionaires.
Makes Washington’s nearly century-old tax code fairer for working and middle-income families by asking the wealthiest Washingtonians to pay a little more to fund schools and health care, reducing taxes for working families and small businesses, and exempting the individual income tax from a statutory prohibition on state and local income taxes. The 9.90% tax on individual incomes exceeding $1 million begins in the calendar year 2028.
✅ SJM8002 - Concerning original Medicare costs and choice.
Levels the costs between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage so that Medicare beneficiaries will not suffer additional costs by choosing Original Medicare and will have a genuine choice between the public and private programs.