{"id":855195,"date":"2026-09-21T07:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855195\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:36:21","slug":"officials-warn-medicaid-cuts-will-have-devastating-impacts-to-king-county-public-health-systems-kiro-7-news-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855195\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials warn Medicaid cuts will have devastating impacts to King County public health systems \u2013 KIRO 7 News Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014 Representatives from the King County Executive\u2019s federal team, Harborview Medical Center and Public Health – Seattle & King County spoke at Thursday\u2019s King County Board of Health meeting<\/a>, warning HR1 also known as the One Big Beautiful Act, will come at a drastic cost to communities and public health systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who lose access to Medicaid, who lose access to behavioral healthcare, don\u2019t simply get better on their own; they end up showing up for county services more often than they would otherwise,\u201d said Mark Ritacco, Senior Policy Advisor with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 1, an estimated 4,000 lawfully present residents, including refugees, asylum grantees, and survivors of human trafficking, will lose Medicaid eligibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t think this is a problem for just those who are most vulnerable; this is a problem for all Washingtonians and particularly for those in King County,\u201d said Sommer Kleweno Walley, CEO of Harborview Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Harborview receives more than $260 million each year in supplemental Medicaid payments, and it projects that funding will drop over the next decade. The hospital estimates $120 million in enrollment-related losses in HR1\u2019s first year alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen hospitals, health systems and clinics close programs – because they can\u2019t afford to keep the doors open anymore – they don\u2019t close them just for Medicaid or just for underinsured or uninsured,\u201d said Kleweno Walley.<\/p>\n

The Washington legislature passed HR 2442<\/a> and SB 2348<\/a>, which could use taxes to generate millions of dollars for public health investments and Harborview Medical Center, and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who is also the King County Board of Health Chair, says King County Council needs to activate these revenue tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a public health emergency, and we need to treat it as such,\u201d said Councilmember Mosqueda.<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Representatives from the King County Executive\u2019s federal team, Harborview Medical Center and Public Health – Seattle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[361108,361107,361104,336138,247574,29370,63234,361110,152073,231987,24800,230908,336135,97,252,253,361109,361098,361102,1895,231994,361099,361106,3729,1341,361111,3,361097,313108,361096,111828,361100,45944,361103,2151,361113,61888,361105,1977,361112,2002,361101,170403,52329],"class_list":["post-855195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-apple_health","tag-apple_healthcare","tag-board_of","tag-bob_ferguson","tag-cairo_7","tag-chair","tag-congressman","tag-dan_newhouse","tag-eric","tag-eric_thomas","tag-governor","tag-harborview","tag-harborview_medical_center","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-house_resolution_one","tag-hr_1","tag-hr_2442","tag-kennewick","tag-king_county","tag-king_county_board_of_health","tag-king_county_council","tag-local","tag-medicaid","tag-michael_bumgartner","tag-news","tag-nia_bliss","tag-omak","tag-one_big_beautiful_act","tag-president_trump","tag-public_health_seattle","tag-pullman","tag-sb_2348","tag-snap","tag-south_seattle","tag-spokane","tag-teresa_mosqueda","tag-video","tag-walla_walla","tag-washington","tag-washingtonians","tag-wenatchee","tag-yakima"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}