Washington State Indigent Medical Care Up 50% For Year Ending March 2004

[hatrack]

Charity care given by Washington hospitals to the poor is surging upward, sapping these institutions of funds they say they need to invest in new facilities and equipment.

Statewide, for the year ending March 30, charity care jumped 50 percent, to $134.3 million, according to the Washington State Hospital Association. In the Puget Sound region alone, the increase in hospital charity care matched the statewide rate, rocketing up to $104.2 million from $69.6 million.

Hospital administrators worry about the trend and how it will affect their ability to make needed improvements, though as yet there are no reports that charity care of itself has sunk any hospital into the red.

The Hospital Association is trying its best to publicize the plight of its members, hoping to exert pressure on state legislators to restore budget cuts that increased the number of uninsured residents."

EDIT

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/09/06/story1.html

[progressivebydesign]

1. I live there.. I think the legislators need to look East..

.. as in Washington, D.C. That is where all of this started. It's about time the Feds paid up on what they owe to the states for unfunded mandates, cuts in community programs. How ANYONE could vote republican is beyond me.