Nearly 30,000 activists sent messages to Olympia during the 2008 legislative session, urging the Legislature and the Governor to expand access to health care in the 2008 budget. Despite a very tough budget session in which Governor Gregoire held the line on spending to create an $850 million rainy day fund, she signed into law all three cost-effective heath care solutions supported by Save Health Care in Washington:
WON! Expanded dental clinic capacity — facilities, equipment, providers — to make sure people get preventive dental care to avoid long-term and costly health problems.
WON! Expanded Health Professional State Loan Repayment and Scholarship Program, which tackles Washington’s growing primary care provider shortage by helping to keep the finest providers — doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists — working in Washington.
WON! Protected funding for community health clinics, which provide a complete range of health care services, from primary medical care to dental care, regardless of patients’ ability to pay. A critical part of the health care safety net, these clinics serve one out of ten people in our state.