| Making Health Care Affordable for All Oregonians |
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| The Problem: |
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The rising cost of health care inflicts real hardship on families and employers. More than one of every six Oregonians has no health insurance (about 609,000 people, or 17 percent). Nearly half of these are working adults. More than 117,000 are children. The consequences of having no coverage can be deadly. Many uninsured people eventually receive care, but only after their conditions have worsened. They often receive such care in emergency rooms, where medical treatment is most expensive.
In addition to ruining lives, uncompensated health care costs create a drag on Oregon’s economy. Unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. Oregonians who have insurance ultimately pay for uncompensated health care through higher insurance premiums. Health insurance premiums for Oregon families who have private health insurance are $1128 (10.2 percent) higher due to the cost of care for the uninsured.
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| The Solution: |
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Governor Kulongoski wants to make Oregon a state where everyone has access to affordable, high-quality health care. He understands that no society can achieve true prosperity if some of its citizens cannot obtain the medical care they need.
Improve access to health care
The Governor seeks to make health care affordable for all Oregonians, which means reducing the number of people who have no health insurance and investing strategically in sustainable health care models. Such models can improve access by maximizing the value of private and public resources, and by providing incentives to improve quality and contain costs. To reach the goals of reducing the number of uninsured and transforming Oregon’s health care system the Governor has proposed both short-term and long-term strategies:
Short term (2007-09):
- Enact the Healthy Kids Plan. Healthy kids do better in school. They do better in life. Under Governor Kulongoski’s Healthy Kids Plan, all Oregon kids will be eligible for affordable health insurance. All children will have access to health care through the continued expansion of school-based health centers. Most important, the Healthy Kids Plan will provide working middle-class families who can’t afford health insurance today the opportunity to buy affordable group coverage.
- Expand coverage to Oregon’s lowest-income families and individuals through the Oregon Health Plan Standard. Since 2002, the number of lowest-income Oregonians (individuals or families at or below poverty) receiving benefits under the OHP Standard program has dropped from over 100,000 to approximately 24,500. Governor Kulongoski has asked the Health Services Commission to develop a new cost-effective benefit package focused on prevention and chronic disease management for OHP Standard clients. Savings generated from that new approach will expand the number of people covered by the OHP Standard benefit.
Long term (2009 and beyond):
- Guarantee affordable health coverage for all Oregonians. Governor Kulongoski has asked the Oregon Health Policy Commission to work throughout the coming year to write a blueprint for building a sustainable system that provides access to affordable health care to every Oregonian. In addition to setting measurable goals for health care system change, the Commission will recommend ways to pay for the system.
Buy what works
Despite skyrocketing costs, we have seen no dramatic improvement in the health of our citizens. Some experts estimate that up to 25 percent of health care dollars go for ineffective and unnecessary care. We must limit the use of care that provides marginal benefit, and use services that experience has proved effective. Specific strategies that will move Oregon toward that goal include: 1) pooling our purchasing power to buy more affordable, evidence-based health care and prescription drugs; 2) improving the transparency of health information, so that consumers know the quality of the health care they buy and exactly how much it costs; and 3) taking advantage of 21st century technology through electronic health records, to improve the quality of the health care and to make delivery more efficient.
Improve the quality and quantity of Oregon’s health care workforce
Labor represents nearly 80 percent of the overall cost of health care. Oregon lacks enough health care professionals to meet the demand our growing and aging population, which drives labor costs up. Through a unique public-private partnership, the Governor’s Health Care Workforce Initiative is focusing on ways Oregon can retain its current health staff, improve health education capacity, provide more clinical training opportunities, train more faculty and fund more health education.
Keep Oregonians healthy
Chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, lung disease and diabetes are among the major causes of disability and death for Oregonians. These chronic diseases affect not only are the lives of the sufferers, but also the cost of health care in general. In addition to intensifying our efforts to fight childhood obesity, Governor Kulongoski has pledged to reduce tobacco use through restoration of funding to Oregon’s tobacco-prevention programs.
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