Welcome to the Alliance
Supporting a strong commitment to public health and local services in Whatcom County
What is a Public Hospital District?
A Public Hospital District is a “special taxing district”, similar to a school district, but focused on healthcare. PHDs belong to local voters, and are managed by an elected board of commissioners. The commission is separate from the county council, and districts operate independently. Unlike for-profit healthcare systems, public hospital districts use income from a property tax levy to create services where they are needed most. Districts are empowered to work on expanding local healthcare infrastructure using a wide variety of tools. Public Hospital Districts are common across Washington and are a proven, cost-effective way to support an area's healthcare infrastructure.
What could a district do here?
A Whatcom-based Public Hospital District would be able to tackle some of our local issues, such as the lack of rural primary care, a shortage of behavioral and mental health providers, a shortage of elder care options, and others.
No district can do everything, but they have a lot of tools at their disposal, which can be as diverse as the district opening and operating its own clinics, running health education programming, providing recruitment and retention bonuses to draw more providers to Whatcom County, or even subsidizing existing providers in our county to expand their offerings.
