The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to spend more than $8 billion over a five-year span for health-care coverage for more than one-third of all D.C. residents, bringing to a contentious end a years-long fight over which insurers should hold D.C.’s highest-value contracts, covering health care for Medicaid recipients.
The council also voted to impose new requirements on the D.C. Housing Authority after a scathing report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found D.C.’s public housing to be among the worst in the nation on some measures.
While the council members were unanimous in their desire for change at the Housing Authority, the Medicaid contracts provoked hours of debate as lobbyists and residents supporting the insurer CareFirst — which ultimately lost in its attempt to win the lucrative Medicaid job — sat in matching T-shirts watching the council’s debate.
