The legislature passed a law last session that affects former employees of all sized businesses seeking to purchase Individual Health Insurance. Until July 26, the law allowed all individuals leaving groups that don’t qualify for COBRA to qualify for individual coverage without pre-screening provided they had been on the group plan 24 months and had lost coverage in the past 90 days. This meant that they had greater access than those leaving a large employer, because they could qualify when the employer shut down the plan for whatever reason. read more »

If left unchanged, the revised estate tax signed into law by Governor Gregoire, could surprise many middle class Washingtonians.

The new law should significantly increase revenues from this source above previous levels. Before the court decision that threw out the old tax, Washington estate tax collections swelled from 0.4 percent of all state taxes collected in 1995 to 1.1 percent in 2004. read more »