Social and Economic Policy
Health Care

Everyone should have access to affordable, quality health care across a full spectrum of services from preventive care to long-term care; and a workforce sufficient in quantity and qualified to provide these services and with the north star of a publicly funded universal healthcare system.


Issue Team Chair: Cynthia Stewart, acting Issue Chair
 DOWNLOAD the Health Care Issue Paper
Interested in getting involved with this topic? Contact Cynthia Stewart 


Take Action!

Updates

Legislation


Get Involved

Overview of the 2024 Legislative Session

While the bills dedicated to our legislative focus of improving oversight of mergers and acquisitions for healthcare entities and moving the cause of Universal Healthcare died in the session because of you they did make significant progress toward passage!  As you can see by the many bills passed, many small incremental steps forward were definitely made to provide and improve both the quantity and quality of healthcare for Washingtonians. Thank you for taking those many requested actions for these important bills this session.

Overview of the 2025 Legislative Session

There have been many diverse bills introduced for the 2025 session.  Many of these bills deal with health care access and some with workforce development. Universal Health Care has been promulgated in a proposed Senate Joint Memorial to the federal government that requests authority for WA State to implement universal health care, althoough the Commission won't have recommendations for at least another year.

The priorities for League support remain:

  • Provide access to affordable health services with quality standards of care, necessary workforce to meet health care needs, and assurance of individual freedom in care choices.
  • Support legislation that would implement single payer and/or universal health care, recognizing that the Universal Health Care Commission, created by the Legislature in 2021, will not have its recommendations ready until 2026.


Updates
At times during the session, an Issue Chair may write a "Weekly Update" to provide more details on what happened during the week. When they are available, they can be found below:

2025 Health Care Legislation

Please see the weekly update above for the list of bills.


How To Be Involved

  • If you are interested in a particular bill, use the links above to go to the webpage for that bill. These pages include staff summaries and reports including who testified PRO versus CON on the bill. There is also information about how to access videos of hearings that have been held. 
  • Read and take action through the LWVWA Legislative Action Newsletter, distributed each Sunday during the legislative session.
  • Local Leagues in Washington have action chairs who coordinate action teams. Some local Leagues have health care teams to take action locally. Contact your local League action chair to find out more and get involved.
  • You may also express your opinion on legislation with the LWVWA issue chairs. We welcome your perspectives as we determine our support for legislation and prepare testimony for the session. Contact Cynthia Stewart, acting Issue Chair.

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