Health Care for All Oregon

Dear supporter of healthcare reform,

We’ve laid the foundation for our health care house with federal reform and passage of HB 2009 in the last session of the Oregon legislature. But we’re not done yet!

Oregon’s HB2009 has already added some of the framing for the house: proposed an essential benefits plan, identified various ways to make health care more efficient and control costs, developed quality standards for management of chronic disease, and proposed that we all have medical homes to coordinate our care. (You can find links with more information about health care reform in Oregon in our Oregon legislation section.)

The next construction phase will determine how the insurance marketplace can operate so that it is user-friendly, controls costs, and includes a Public Plan. Properly constructed, the proposed Health Insurance Exchange could provide a marketplace where individuals and small business can find help in selecting from a menu of health plans. Among the private plans in the Exchange, Oregonians should have the choice of a publicly owned and publicly administered plan … a health plan that puts your interest first, is cost-effective, user-friendly, and accountable to the public, not shareholders.

HB2009 requires that ALL Oregonians have access to health coverage by 2015. ALL Oregonians need to participate in building our health care house—we will be living in our house for many years to come. You, your friends and neighbors are urged to attend the public forum in your town or nearby this September. Talk with the architects and builders of our health care house (the Oregon Health Policy Board), voice your likes and ideas for the insurance marketplace, the publicly owned and administered health plan, and the essential benefits. You can find information on the public forums in the Oregon Legislation section of this Web site, as well as what HCAO thinks the Board needs to hear.

Whether or not you can attend, be sure to write the Board and your legislator demanding a strong, large insurance exchange that includes a publicly owned and publicly administered plan and holds all health plans accountable for improving quality, ensuring access, and reducing cost. You can send your input by e-mail to ohpb.info@state.or.us Lawmakers will decide on the details of the Exchange and the Public Plan this fall. Health insurance lobbyists will be hard at work attempting to keep things as they are. But the Health Insurance Exchange could be set up to pool the purchasing power of many Oregonians, so we can get a better deal on health care. It could also allow you to compare different health care plans in a simpler, clearer way, and to carry your plan from one job to another.

Next: an Oregon single payer bill. But passing a strong Insurance Exchange and Publicly Owned and Administered Plan under HB2009 is only the first step. In order to put a roof on our health care house that covers all essential services and shelters all Oregonians at an affordable price, HCAO is also working with Jobs with Justice, Physicians for a National Health Program, and other advocates on an Oregon single payer bill. Oregon legislators have committed to seeing the bill at least gets a committee hearing. The best case is, with enough push from Oregonians, the Legislature would refer the bill to voters.