Emily Makings

New details on who is enrolling in insurance through the WA exchange

As I noted last week, health insurance enrollments through the Washington Healthplanfinder have been driven by Medicaid. Today the exchange has a more informative report on enrollment activity through November. Some details on the 179,330 who have enrolled: 159,186 (88.8 percent) are in Medicaid. 20,144 are in qualified (private) health plans; of those, 79.1 percent […]

Medicaid is still driving exchange enrollments, but private plans are also up this week

This week’s Healthplanfinder enrollment update shows significant increases in enrollment in qualified (private) health plans, newly eligible Medicaid, and immediate coverage Medicaid. Total enrollment through the exchange is now up to 176,468 (through November 28). Of those, 18,131 are in qualified health plans (10.3 percent). (According to the Seattle Times, “Officials project that about 130,000 residents […]

WA average workers' comp rates to increase 2.7 percent

The Department of Labor and Industries has announced that it will increase average workers’ compensation rates by 2.7 percent for 2014 (after two years of no increases). Per the news release, Noting that the 2011 reforms are projected to save approximately $150 million in the fiscal year that ends next July, [Director Joel] Sacks said […]

SeaTac and local minimum wage laws

The Wall Street Journal writes about the “patchwork of local wage laws”: A wave of successful state and local initiatives to raise the minimum wage is creating the potential for a greater patchwork of pay standards around the country than ever before, fueling the debate over whether Congress should raise the federal level. Of course, […]

New brief: High Stakes for Washington in Competition for 777X

In a new policy brief, we write about the tax preference and spending package the Legislature passed earlier this month as part of the effort to secure manufacture of Boeing’s 777X for Washington. Read it here.

Medicaid accounts for 88.1 percent of WA Healthplanfinder enrollments

The Washington Health Benefit Exchange has been sending out the numbers of people enrolled in health care coverage through the exchange (Washington Healthplanfinder) each week. The most recent release shows that 98,399 enrollments have been completed since the Oct. 1 launch of the exchange. Of those, only 11,742 (11.9 percent) are in qualified health plans […]

Announcing our new website

We are excited to unveil our new website today. Our blog, publications, and other work are now all located in one place: researchcouncil.org. Please update your bookmarks. To receive our blog posts by email, please look at the column on the right hand side of the blog and enter your email where it says “follow […]

State Supreme Court hears public pension arguments

This morning the state Supreme Court heard arguments on the public pension gain sharing and uniform COLA cases. The Department of Retirement Services summarized the issues yesterday: At issue in one case is a law from 2008 which repealed gain sharing provisions for members and retirees of certain state retirement plans and replaced them with […]

WRC reports on ballot measures

Ballots are in the mail, if not already in voters’ hands. In light of that, here are our reports on the statewide ballot measures: Initiative 522: Costly, Flawed and Ill-Conceived Initiative 517: Infringing Property Rights and Enshrining a New Protected Class And, for SeaTac voters: Proposition 1 and the “Living Wage Movement” in SeaTac: Increasing […]

"I'm bad at math" versus "I can succeed if I study hard"

Partnership for Learning writes, The office of Superintendent of Public Instruction released results last week for the 2013 Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) that showed little to no progress — and even some regression — for Washington state’s schools. The AMOs are part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver that was reissued to […]