Washington Universal Healthcare Coverage and Funding through Payroll, Income, and Capital Gains Taxes Initiative (2018)
| Washington Universal Healthcare Coverage and Funding through Payroll, Income, and Capital Gains Taxes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Healthcare | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The Washington Universal Healthcare Coverage and Funding through Payroll, Income, and Capital Gains Taxes Initiative (#1600) was not on the ballot in Washington as an Initiative to the People, a type of initiated state statute, on November 6, 2018.
This initiative would have created the Whole Washington Health Trust within the Washington state department of health. The trust would have provided the following healthcare services to all Washington residents:[1][2]
- hospital care;
- certain outpatient care, including treatment for chronic illnesses;
- drugs and medical devices;
- mental health treatment;
- diagnosis and lab services;
- reproductive, maternity, and newborn services;
- Pediatric services;
- paid management and end-of-life services;
- oral, hearing, and vision services;
- rehab services.
To fund these services available to all Washington residents, the initiative would have established a tax on employers and on capital gains.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot titles for the different versions of the initiative are below:[2]
| Initiative 1600 ballot title | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Initiative Measure No. 1600 concerns healthcare. This measure would require establishment of a comprehensive state program to pay for healthcare for all Washington residents by November 2019, funded by premiums and taxes on employers, individual income, and capital gains. Should this measure be enacted into law? | |||||
Ballot summary
The ballot summaries for the different versions of the initiative are below:[2]
| Initiative 1600 ballot summary | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
This measure would require establishment of a comprehensive state program to pay for healthcare services, prescriptions, and medical equipment for all Washington residents. The program would establish covered healthcare services and eligibility rules; determine premiums and provider payments; seek necessary waivers; and integrate existing healthcare benefit programs. Funding would be through premiums and taxes on employers, individual income, and capital gains. It would require residents to file individual tax returns and add other tax laws. | |||||
Full text
- The full text of the initiative is available here.
Sponsors
Whole Washington led the campaign in support of this initiative.
The following is a list of organizations, unions, elected officials, and candidates that have endorsed the measure.[3]
Organizations
Unions
Elected Officials
Campaigning Candidates
|
Arguments
Whole Washington campaign director Georgia Davenport said, “I would say it wasn’t [[[Bernie Sanders]]]' campaign that inspired me to be more involved, but the knowledge that there were millions of other people who believed in single-payer health care, economic and racial justice, living wages. Basically, everything that all other developed countries have figured out for years, but our own representatives seem incapable of comprehending, let alone passing.”[4]
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
- See also: 2018 ballot measure polls
In 2017, Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) commissioned and released a poll of 887 likely Washington state voters via landline conducted by Public Policy Polling. The poll results showed 64 percent of those polled supported expanding Medicare to provide universal health coverage to all Americans—with 50 percent strongly supporting it and 14 percent somewhat supporting it. The 32 percent that opposed the initiative was broken down into 9 percent somewhat opposed and 23 percent strongly opposed. Of those polled, 4 percent were undecided or not sure.[5]
| Universal Healthcare Coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Support | Oppose | Undecided | Margin of error | Sample size | ||||||||||||||
| Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) poll 6/27/2017 - 6/28/2017 | 64% | 32% | 4% | +/-3.3 | 887 | ||||||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Washington, the number of signatures required to qualify a directly initiated state statute—called an Initiative to the People in Washington—for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last regular gubernatorial election. Initial filings for direct initiatives cannot be made more than 10 months before the general election at which their proposal would be presented to voters. Signatures must be submitted at least four months prior to the general election.
The requirements to get an Initiative to the People certified for the 2018 ballot:
- Signatures: 259,622 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 6, 2018.
The secretary of state verifies the signatures using a random sample method. If the sample indicates that the measure has sufficient signatures, the measure is certified for the ballot. However, if the sample indicates that the measure has insufficient signatures, every signature is checked. Under Washington law, a random sample result may not invalidate a petition.
Details about this initiative
- Erin Georgen submitted this initiative on January 9, 2018.[2]
- A ballot title and summary were issued for this initiative on January 30, 2018.[2]
- As of June 7, 2018, proponents reported collecting around 60,000 signatures.[4]
- Proponents of the initiative did not submit signatures to the secretary of state's office by the July 6, 2018, deadline and the measure was not put on the ballot.[6][2]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Washington secretary of state, "Initiative 1600 Text," accessed January 24, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Washington secretary of state, "Proposed Initiatives to the People - 2018," accessed January 24, 2018
- ↑ Whole Washington, "Endorsements," accessed May 12, 2018
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Truthout, "Sanders-Inspired Activists Push Referendum for Universal Health Care in Washington State," accessed June 7, 2018
- ↑ Northwest Progressive Institute "Washingtonians strongly support Medicare For All and oppose Trumpcuts, NPI poll finds," accessed June 7, 2018
- ↑ Ballotpedia Staff Writer, Email communication with Lydia Plukchi of the Washington Secretary of State's office, July 9, 2018.
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