More depressing news in the New Year. Seattle and King County Public Health just announced that crucial services for mothers and babies will be slashed March 1 because of the state budget crisis which has reduced Medicaid-funded services.
King County Public Health spokesperson James Apa said that 123 staff members were sent pink slips today because funding for the county’s Maternity Support Services (MSS)—which serves low-income pregnant mothers and their children—has been cut by half. Those getting laid off include nurses, social workers, dentists, dental assistants, and education specialists.
MSS supports 30,000 patients in King County, so a 50 percent cut is pretty dire. King County Executive Dow Constantine warned in a statement that these cuts could result in the loss of federal funding. “This is a cost-saving and life-saving service, so it makes no sense to cut it,” Apa said, explaining that MSS provides critical support to at-risk mothers by reducing low birth weights, which often results in expensive hospital stays.
Additionally if the Legislature doesn’t reverse reductions in reimbursements for Medicaid services over the next few weeks, more lay-offs will occur and over 100,000 patients will lose access to important healthcare services. “These cuts will be very very deep,” Apa said. “It will close down clinics and take away services such as dental and family planning.”
King County Publc Health has made significant cuts in previous years. In 2009-2011, the agency cut 344 staff positions and lost $32.9 million. The MSS cut along with the proposed reduction in Medicaid reimbursement will take away more than $23 million from Public Health this year.
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“Help decrease the surplus population” should’ve been the anti income taxers slogan. Disgusting.
Uhhh … it would be terrible if 123 people who help poor, pregnant women (and poor mothers) were laid off. But, something doesn’t seem right here. I feel like the county is using this as a political bargaining chip. Press releases are only issued when something needs to be gained/bragged about …
Slim Charles @2, the layoff notices we received today are quite real, and unless I can land a job offer somewhere in the next six weeks, I expect to be unemployed again come March 1st.
@2: “Press releases are only issued when something needs to be gained/bragged about …”
Sure thing. Over a hundred layoffs and a fifty percent budget cut couldn’t possibly be newsworthy all on their own.
Slim Charles, my partner was at the health clinic today when everyone got the layoff notices. It’s quite real. So was the notice he got that a very expensive life-saving drug that he receives through Washington State Community Health Plan will no longer be covered and he has to re-apply under a different program that has a waiting list of thousands.Does that sound like a political bargaining chip? To my partner is quite literally life and death. Keep that in mind the next time you feel the urge to say something else that’s equally ignorant.
Dire as these cuts are, it should be noted that earlier drafts of the state budget called for eliminating Maternity Support Services outright.
It was just a thought. I’ve seen mayors use layoff notices to leverage concessions from unions. I wasn’t saying that the layoff notices are not “real.”