Yakima, Wash. — As health care rates continue to rise statewide, legislators in the state of Washington expressed their opinions on the current state of health care, and who the responsibility falls on.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wa, has spoken publicly across the state over the past week, and believes that insurance companies are at fault for the spike in health care rates, as well as the federal government.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a series of policies recently that have literally made health insurance harder for many Washingtonians, and as these deadlines approach, the cost of insurance is definitely going to go up and we need to fight back,” Cantwell said.
Sen. Cantwell believes that people around the state need to take action, and fast.
“We made substantial progress in covering Washingtonians on the Affordable Care Act, now is not the time to try to roll it back,” Cantwell said. “Now is not the time to basically cut Medicaid and impacts on the system, now is the time to make sure that we’re continuing to get coverage, lower costs and help Washingtonians on affordability when affordability is such a critical issue across many fronts.”
On the contrary, Rep. Chris Corry, R-Wa, believes that the blame is on the state and federal government, and that insurance companies have served as a scapegoat.
“It’s easy to create an enemy for people to point to and just assume that it’s the insurance companies,” Corry said. “But when you dig into their numbers, and you look at what they’re doing, it is all reactionary to policies passed at the state and federal level.”
Several health insurance companies in Washington state have requested to increase their rates by an average of 21.2% in 2026.