Skip navigation

November FTAC Recap: Can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear

By Consuelo Echeverria 

In Nov, the FTAC addressed the UHCC request to focus on Coverage/Enrollment with an in-depth explanation of how Medicaid works in WA and potential opportunities for Medicaid under a universal health care system. While Medicaid in WA certainly is trying to be inclusive and equitable there are some issues with trying to expand this approach into a universal system.

  • Overutilization is pitched as the driver of high health care costs while the high administrative costs built into the medical industrial complex was left open.
  • An attempt to consolidate and better manage MCOs to control costs will not fix the basic  issue of capitation with high rates of denials to maximize profits.
  • While rate normalization is seen as a complex problem in the current system, a simple single-payer model is the most cost-effective solution.

As one commentator mentioned, “WA has done a good job of making the existing system work.  But it’s expensive and takes a lot of work, which is why we need to take a different tack.”  

The current system is a prime example of why the FTAC’s time would be better spent analyzing   the unified single payer system presented in the Washington Health Trust, which is modeled on HCFA-WA’s Washington Health Security Trust.    

Join us as we track the next meeting of the UHCC on Thursday, December 14, 2023, 2-4 p.m.

We encourage you to:

Catch up on past UHCC and FTAC meetings

To get our take, you can read past meeting recaps.

Continue Reading

Read More

April UHCC Meeting: Governance tops the agenda

May 07, 2025

By Marcia Stedman, HCFA-WA Board member   This month’s Universal Health Care Commission (UHCC) meeting opened with approving prior meeting minutes and hearing public comments, before launching into a discussion of governance and hearing a report on the baseline modelling of 3 existing insurance...

Read more

March FTAC Meeting: Who's on first?

March 31, 2025

By Marcia Stedman, HCFA-WA Board member   Once again, the lack of clarity about governance was front and center at the recent March FTAC meeting. Coming the day after Oregon's presentation at our 2WSS session on how they are developing their UHC plan and recapped above,...

Read more