2009 Mental Health Legislative Summary: Enormous challenges, notable wins

Despite our best efforts, the state Legislature has adopted a budget that institutes major budget cuts over the next two years in healthcare, education and social services.
 
In healthcare alone, the cuts total over $1 billion, including
 

• Cuts to programs like the Basic Health Plan and Healthy Options, which serve low and moderate income people without private insurance;
• Community mental health: $51 million in cuts (Medicaid and non-medicaid and innovative programs)
• Chemical dependency treatment services: $15 million in cuts
• Reductions in payments to hospitals for Medicaid patients and other low-income patients;
• Reductions in outpatient services for children and adults
• Cuts to in-home care, nursing home care, and adult day services.
   
  Our union, along with some mental health providers, the state hospital association and others, advocated strongly for the Legislature to allow the voters to adopt a temporary sales tax to fund the healthcare safety net. Unfortunately, in the end there was insufficient legislative support to win passage of this bill.
   
  We fought hard and strengthened our Union
   
  In the best of our union’s tradition, we fought hard for our clients and our principle that healthcare should be a right. We built important new political alliances with hospital employers, mental health providers, consumer groups and others.
   
  In the last 4 months, more than 325 members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW spent at least one day lobbying in Olympia on behalf of the people we care for, our jobs, and our communities. Hundreds more members of our union wrote letters and made phone calls in support of saving the healthcare safety net.
   
  Important victories that will help us protect clients and our members
   
  Amid this landscape, we can claim some notable victories thanks to the tireless activism of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members and our allies:
•  We protected our wages and benefits: In adopting its budget, the Legislature directed providers to protect the compensation gains that frontline community mental health staff made in the last 2 years. This budget “proviso” language states, “The legislature intends and expects that regional support networks and contracted agencies shall make all possible efforts to, at a minimum, maintain current compensation levels of direct care staff.”
  The Legislature directed RSNs and providers to preserve client services and staff compensation by reducing RSN administrative expenses, using local funding sources to backfill cuts, and engaging clients, advocates, providers and workers to find other ways to save money. Read more here.
• County funds can now save programs and services by “backfilling” state cuts: The Legislature gave counties the authority to use locally-raised funds (the 1/10 of 1% local mental health taxes) to “backfill” cuts in community mental health, chemical dependency treatment, and housing. Until now, counties had to use these funds strictly for new and expanded programs. This “backfilling” authority can go a long way towards mitigating the worst of the cuts in community services. Read more here.
• GA-U clients will still have access to services: The Legislature rejected the governor’s proposal to completely eliminate the GA-U program, which serves 20,000 of the most vulnerable Washingtonians with medical care and housing assistance. GA-U will receive some funding reduction, but the program is essentially preserved.

Where we go from here
 
The cuts to the healthcare safety net will challenge us, but we have some important tools that will allow us to make difference for clients and our members in this period.

• The state budget “proviso” protecting our compensation gives important clarity to us and to providers as we move forward in bargaining new contracts. Read more here.
• The new law allowing counties to use the 1/10 of 1% mental health tax revenues to backfill cuts means we have a chance to preserve many vital community programs. We will have to work with allies in the coming months to convince counties that at least some of these local revenues need to be committed toward keeping existing programs going.
 
On May 9th, the leadership team of our Campaign for Quality Mental Health Care and Social Services will hold an important meeting to plan our next steps in the campaign to save client services and critical programs. Leaders from every chapter are planning to attend. We’ll be in touch with all union members after that meeting.

Additionally, we urge every SEIU Healthcare 1199NW member to join us on May 30 as we rally for national healthcare for all.