Washington Apple Health

{{Short description|Government health insurance program}}

Washington Apple Health is the Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs offered in Washington state. The program was initiated on January 1, 2014.{{citation|author=John Webster|title=STATE TRIES TO SIMPLIFY MEDICAID Apple Health Program Aims to Reduce Sign-Up time, ER Trips|newspaper=The Spokesman-Review|location=Spokane, WA|date=July 23, 2013|url=}} It was preceded in 2008 by a children's health plan run by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) called "Apple Health for Kids".{{citation|title=DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES LAUNCHES NEW APPLE HEALTH FOR KIDS - NEW INITIATIVE TO BOOST ENROLLMENT IN CHILDREN'S MEDICAL COVERAGE|publisher=Washington State Department of Social and Health Services|type=press release|date=March 10, 2009|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1522965421.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121014420/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1522965421.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 21, 2018}} In 2016, the plan was ordered by a Federal district court judge to include a coverage treatment with a certain drug for Hepatitis C to all 28,000 patients with the disease, not only those who qualified based on degree of liver damage.{{citation|title=Judge orders Washington Medicaid to provide lifesaving hepatitis C drugs for all |author=JoNel Aleccia |date=May 28, 2016|newspaper=The Seattle Times|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/judge-orders-apple-health-to-cover-hepatitis-c-drugs-for-all/}} As a Medicaid program, recipients of benefits will be subject to estate recovery by the DSHS Office of Financial Recovery.{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Estate recovery {{!}} Washington State Health Care Authority |url=https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-help-others-apply-and-access-apple-health/estate-recovery |website= |location= |publisher=Washington State Health Care Authority |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627161023/https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-help-others-apply-and-access-apple-health/estate-recovery |archive-date=2024-06-27 |access-date=2025-01-19}}