r/Washington50501 • u/Silver_Guidance4134 • Jul 22 '25
If you are mad about the Medicaid/ACA cuts and want to make a difference
Hello,
I am a volunteer with Whole Washington and I am the social media team lead.
Whole Washington is a 501c4 political non-profit and we are the authors of the Washington Health Trust. This is the only universal healthcare legislation in Washington. Coverage includes medical, dental, vision, reproductive care, mental health services, gender-affirming care, and more. We have active legislation in the house and the senate. We got record sponsorship this year and are looking to continue the momentum moving forward.
Now is a critical time for the movement. The Washington State government is stuck playing defense against the draconian cuts from the federal government. Instead of playing defense, we at Whole Washington believe that transitioning to universal healthcare is the way forward. Universal Healthcare would save money, save hospitals, and cover more people with better coverage.
There are many ways to help us move forward including:
- Pledging to sign our initiative when we run one again
- Signing up to volunteer
- Helping us by advertising with our printable materials
- Donating, learning more, etc
Additionally, you can (or maybe already do) support any of our coalition members in Healthcare as a Human Right Washington.
Thank you for your attention and I appreciate the work of everyone here defending the rights of everyone in our state. Feel free to ask any questions! I will answer anything about our bill or our organization.
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u/Trick-Wishbone1900 Jul 23 '25
This is a great idea! If we can't count on the Federal government, then let's take care of ourselves. I worry about the big insurance companies with the deep pockets that are going to hate this legislation though
7
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 23 '25
No question that big insurance hates this. We are cutting them out of the profits. It turns out we save money doing that!
2
u/blanktarget Jul 28 '25
Signed up. Boy that's a lot of signatures you'll need. Even then if it gets them, if it passes, can't they just... Not enact it? Isn't that essentially what happened with the daylight savings time?
1
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 28 '25
Thank you! If it passes, legal challenges are the main risk. Ideally, it passes through the legislature so there is less concern on this front.
1
u/AtheistAgnostic Jul 22 '25
Would this legislation stop us from needing to pay Medicare taxes? Would Medicare funding feed into it somehow?
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u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 22 '25
You would still pay Medicare/Medicaid taxes.
How the integration with Medicare/Medicaid works is ultimately up to the federal government. Our goal is for Medicare and Medicaid to pay into the Washington Health Trust (WHT), making it a single payer system. For most procedures, the WHT would have a higher payout than the government programs (definitely Medicaid) so having those pay into the trust first would simplify the work for everyone. The WHT would also cover more (dental, hearing, etc) than those programs. If the federal government refuses to grant the necessary provisions, then we are stuck with a multi-payer system with the federal government paying first and then the WHT paying the rest.
1
u/ImageOk3420 Jul 23 '25
How are we stuck? The population of the U.S. is around 330 million. The people doing this? At best we'd have a handful to deal with and at worst still no where near our numbers and capabilities.
Do they have all the money and control the system? Sadly yes, that however does nothing to change the numerical advantage.
We also as a country have the most firearms on the planet, ammo, ballistic armor, the works we have it.
Why do we have that right? What specific circumstances did our founders warn us about?
The world is looking at the U.S. as a bond villain right now.
1
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 23 '25
We are stuck in committee in the House and Senate right now. We are working on our relationships with the members (and chairs) of the committees right now. We are also working on getting more labor support to increase the pressure we can put on those members. It is a winnable fight!
1
u/ImageOk3420 Jul 23 '25
I will never insult or sully your faith or will to do things within the bounds of civility and law.
I'm simply sharing another point of view (shared by this nations founders) that should be on the minds of all moral and decent people here and I'm certainly not calling for any kind of violence, to clarify.
First I apologize if this comes off as rude but I'm going to assume you're a human account and not a bot of any kind.
Would you mind sharing what news source you most trust?
I will add mine are Robert Reich former secretary of labor under Clinton who is now a teacher and has a very educational youtube channel.
Hasan Piker of twitch and YouTube fame for daily news breakdowns backed up by evidence and his predictions are usually accurate.
Meidas touch news is also very good.
1
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 23 '25
I watch Hasan sometimes. For health, the Kaiser Family Foundation is excellent. They have tons of resources for learning more about healthcare. I also recommend our YouTube channel because I make the videos and I can vouch for the data in them.
1
u/ImageOk3420 Jul 23 '25 edited Jul 23 '25
Awesome KFF Is a great foundation, It seems I was wasting my worry you already watch and keep up with good sources lol.
I'm just someone who likes to be prepared for any of the likely future events and the way things are going isn't great and even if the "left" sweeps the midterms a lot of the damage of the BBB can't really be mitigated.
Considering the severity of the cuts, the lack of accountability that's been common for decades, the continued pac money going to near every politician we have, the dollar falling at it's fastest rate since the 70s, the trade wars and tariffs alienating our allies, the continued backing including taxpayer dollar of the genocide in gaza and surrounding environs, the war crimes charges from the ICC we are currently defending Netanyahu from including but not limited to ordering the the mass murder of children, women, old, sick, disabled, etc..., the starvation tactics employed on the entire Palestinian people while using the guise of humanitarian aid stations as kill zones, the bombing of hospitals and cafés, the murder of humanitarian workers, of educators, doctors.
I could quite literally go on for a much longer time but how much longer are we going to have to be complicit? Palestinian children's blood is on all of us in the U.S. and it makes me physically ill, as we have a pedo president and Republicans vote to defend pedophiles.
At what point will we ever have made up for all of our indefensible crimes as a country?
1
u/Disastrous-Cake1476 Jul 23 '25
Can you tell me how this plan treats people who are self employed? I would love to see healthcare taken away from w2 employment.
1
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 23 '25
Self-employed people would pay 2% of gross wages, which is the same as what w2 people would pay. Those without jobs would pay nothing (unless capital gains >$200k).
3
u/Disastrous-Cake1476 Jul 23 '25
Thank you so much. This helps. It's generally harder to be self employed than people realize since we also pay medicare taxes that include our portion plus the employers portion. I would love to see WA get universal healthcare.
1
u/LucytheLeviathan Jul 23 '25
What does volunteering entail? Is it just canvassing?
2
u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 23 '25
Volunteering is much more than canvassing. We have an active legislative agenda, we work with the state universal healthcare committee, we have social media posting, and we run events and fundraisers. The organization is almost entirely volunteer with only 2 part time employees. We welcome people with all sorts of skill sets and from anywhere in the state (our board is from all over the state).
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Jul 25 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Silver_Guidance4134 Jul 25 '25
Ah yes, that fascinating myth of welfare queens. Ignore the $1.6 trillion dollar industry that provides a negative value and focus on the most disadvantaged among us. At Whole Washington we support healthcare for everyone, not just those that are working.
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u/LameDuckDonald Jul 22 '25
National healthcare in Canada started province by province. This is the best way to transition to national healthcare.