SJM 8006’s final hurdle
Will Washington take a tiny nonbinding step towards universal healthcare?
With just days left in the 2024 legislative session, SJM 8006 has been advanced out of the House Rules Committee chaired by Representative Laurie Jinkins and will move onto the House floor for a vote.
- SJM 8006 has not yet been scheduled for a vote on the House calendar.
- The House is scheduled to take floor votes from 2/27–3/1 and is the last window of opportunity for bills to pass the House this session.
- 3/7 is the last day allowed for regular session under state constitution.
- The end of the 2024 session marks the end of the two-year legislative cycle meaning that all bills that have not passed by 3/1 will be dead.
SJM 8006 is a Senate joint-memorial that requests federal action towards the establishment of universal healthcare, both statewide in Washington and federally across the United States. While the bill is not universal healthcare legislation in itself, it plays an important role nonetheless in establishing a necessary state-federal partnership and federal streams of revenue towards its implementation.
For more information please read Why SJM 8006 Must Pass This Session.
What comes after SJM 8006?
As the session ends and the final chapters of SJM 8006’s journey are determined by legislators, the question remains — what comes next for healthcare reform in Washington?
The Universal Health Care Commission
The Universal Health Care Commission has been meeting for three years now since the passage of SB.5399 and while it has released multiple reports, it has not yet recommended or requested any legislative action from Washington legislators.
The commission’s annual report to the legislature is due 11/1/2024 and at least in theory could set the agenda for healthcare-reform bills in the 2025 legislative session, but whether that report will contain any recommendations for the legislature to consider is yet to be seen.
The Washington legislature
Meanwhile, The Washington Health Trust (SB.5335), a comprehensive statewide universal healthcare proposal, will be one of the bills that dies at the end of this session — its third iteration to stall and ultimately die in the Senate Health & Long Term Care committee.
While the legislature may need prompting in the form of legislative recommendations from the Universal Health Care Commission, there is always possibility that bills which effectively expand, lower the cost of, or deprivatize health care may be considered in any legislative session.
Once we know what makes it through this session we will have a better idea of what kinds of bills might have a chance in the new two-session cycle.
The universal health care movement
Washington state’s grassroots universal health care movement is watching closely and will be holding a rally in Olympia on 3/6, one day before the end of session. The temperature at that rally will no doubt depend at least somewhat on the final outcome of SJM 8006, which has been backed by all the event cosponsors (PSARA, Health Care For All Washington, Whole Washington).
Conclusion
The passage of SJM 8006 would not be nearly as significant as its defeat. The biggest criticism of the bill is that as a joint-resolution to it is nonbinding and highly symbolic.
“… if the legislature cannot even pass a symbolic resolution that costs no money, changes no laws, and does little more than request federal support, then what hope would there be for more substantial reforms …”
And while there may be a grain of truth to this, the reality is that if the legislature cannot even pass a symbolic resolution that costs no money, changes no laws, and does little more than request federal support, then what hope would there be for more substantial reforms to be considered?
Alternatively, if the legislature does pass 8006 then perhaps there is hope that at the dawn of a new biennium and fresh legislative session some more substantial legislative action can be pursued and even passed.
Andre Stackhouse is a lifelong Seattle resident, political organizer, and writer with bylines at The Daily of the University of Washington and the International Examiner.
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