PORT ANGELES — Passionate, but informed debate on co-payments and monthly premiums for low-income residents enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program filled Port Angeles City Council chambers Wednesday night as state Department of Social and Health Services Officials toured the area with their proposal.
Douglas Porter, Social and Health Services assistant secretary of Medical Assistance Administration, said the community meetings are giving the public confidence “that we won’t do something without support of the legislature and governor.”
Porter said other crowds have been larger, but no less passionate and informed than the 30 people who showed up in Port Angeles.
The Port Angeles meeting was the fifth in a series of 10 over the proposal that could mean a major change in Medicaid benefits.
Included in the proposal are co-payments of up to $5 for brand-name drugs when generics are available, $10 for emergency room visits for problems that could have been handled in a physician’s office and monthly enrollment fees.
It could also freeze enrollment in state health-care plans when funding is depleted.
Co-payments won’t be enforced if a physician prescribes a brand-name drug.
Meeting attendees argued against monthly premiums saying people living at or just above the national poverty level might have to go without food and other essentials to pay those costs.
Health care providers also asked Social and Health Services to bill patients for co-payments so they don’t have that responsibility.
“How many patients do you expect to lose?” asked former Sequim City Councilwoman Kate Sheffield, alluding to a statement made by Porter during a Tacoma meeting.
At that meeting, Porter said there will be a higher mortality rate among people without health insurance during a time when enrollment in the state program is frozen.
“We hear you talking about data, but we don’t hear you talking about peoples’ needs,” Sheffield said.
Don Zanon, director of Peninsula Community Mental Center in Port Angeles, assailed the proposed changes saying “punching more holes in the system isn’t the answer.”
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The rest of this story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.