United for a Healthy Oregon

Here is the text of the floor letter delivered to all members of the Oregon Legislature prior to the vote:

Like you, we believe that the time is now for health reform. All Oregonians need affordable access to quality health care, with an ultimate objective of improving health. We know that there is much work that needs to be done before we achieve those ultimate goals.

Today we applaud you for passing HB2009 and HB2116 to start Oregon down the path of comprehensive health reform. Thank you for recognizing that investing in meaningful ways to control health care costs and improve our delivery system will help get our economy back on track by making health care more affordable and accessible.
We pledge to work with you as our state begins to implement this historic legislation.

Our coalition of over 40 organizations representing over 800,000 Oregonians came together this session to support the recommendations of the Oregon Health Fund Board. We have watched the hard work done by the House Health Care Committee on HB2009 and the Senate Health Care and Veterans’ Affairs Committee on the 7 cost-containment bills that have been incorporated into HB2009. These combined efforts have produced a piece of legislation in the final version of HB2009 that is true to the Oregon Health Fund Board recommendations for the best next steps to implement health reform. HB2116 will allow the expansion of health insurance coverage to Oregon’s children and 35,000 additional low income adults.

We have recognized from the beginning of the session that the Oregon Health Fund Board’s plan needed to be sequenced over several years. The steps taken this session are only beginning, and we congratulate you on taking this critical first step on health reform.

The work ahead requires that we focus our attention on both the initial implementation and the completion of the vision of the Oregon Health Fund Board over the next several years. The transition to an independent Health Authority needs to be done in a thoughtful manner and we urge DHS and the Health Policy Board to work closely with stakeholders, especially consumers, during the implementation phase, and we pledge to be active participants throughout this process.

Thank you for leading the way as Oregon starts down the path of comprehensive health reform. We look forward to working together as the next steps are outlined and implemented during the interim and in preparation for the 2011 legislative session.

On Monday, June 8th the Oregon House passed comprehensive health reform. HB2009 and HB2116 are companion bills that will expand coverage to 80,000 Oregon children and 35,000 additional low income adults, and lay the foundation for reforms to limit the growth in health care costs.

This afternoon HB2009, the comprehensive health reform bill before the Oregon Legislature, moved out of the Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee with a do-pass recommendation! It will come before the full Ways and Means Committee tomorrow.

Position on Comprehensive Health Reform in the 2009 Session

Our coalition of organizations represents over 800,000 Oregonians working together to support the health reform in the 2009 Oregon Legislative session. We have been active participants in the process this session, working closely with the House Health Care Committee on HB2009 language creating the Health Authority and an Insurance Exchange and with the Senate Health Care and Veterans Affair Committee on the cost containment and equities components that were introduced as SB451-457 and are now part of HB2009.

Comprehensive reform will take time, and we must begin now. The Oregon Health Fund Board’s recommendations include strategies that will deliver direct cost savings to Oregonians in the near term, as well as the long term. The Health Fund Board has calculated that an investment of approximately $6 million this session to fund the reform package will save hundreds of millions of dollars over three years, and $10 billion over 10 years.

Together, we support action this session to:

1. Pass and fund a comprehensive health reform package based on the following criteria:

• The language around the Oregon Health Authority and the Insurance Exchange in HB2009B has gone through an extensive review and amendment process over the last several months. We support using the language in HB2009B which describes these two important policy areas. However, we understand the concerns about moving too quickly to establish the Health Authority as an independent entity. While we believe an independent Health Authority is essential, we agree that taking the next two years to plan for how best to structure the Health Authority and DHS as two separate entities makes sense and support that timing.
• Clear direction around the development of the business plan for an Insurance Exchange needs to be articulated so that it will establish a central marketplace for insurance that provides one-stop shopping for individuals and small businesses to compare rates, benefits and quality among plans, to help find one that best suits their needs. An essential benefit package needs to be defined to serve as the floor for all insurance plans sold in Oregon. In addition to private insurance plans, consumers must be able to choose a public health plan option.
• We are very concerned about the current language around insurance rate regulation in SB856. Health reform legislation should either incorporate the key provisions of HB3145, which has the support of DCBS, the Oregon Health Fund Board, and this coalition, or be complementary to it.
• The Oregon Health Fund Board policy components in SB451-457 that have been amended into HB2009 need to be part of the final legislation.

2. Pass HB2116 to use money already within the health care system to restructure and renew the provider tax to draw down all the federal match available to expand coverage now and:

• Cover 80,000 children and 100,000 low-income Oregonians
• Bring over $1 billion in new federal dollars to Oregon

3. Rein in rising health insurance premiums for individuals, families and small businesses. Pass HB3145 as a stand-alone insurance rate review bill, or add the bill’s key provisions to the comprehensive health reform bill to: 

• Stop approval of excessive rates, and require DCBS to consider specific factors to determine if a rate meets that standard.
• Limit increases in administrative costs to the rate of inflation, unless higher costs are necessary and appropriate.
• Make clear that “cost containment” includes strategies that improve care while cutting unnecessary spending, including evidence-based medicine, chronic disease management, prevention, and reducing the cost of prescription drugs.
• Open the rate review process to public comment and public hearings.

Today, one in five Oregonians is currently uninsured and nearly 60 percent of them are employed. Living without adequate health coverage is a risk no one should have to take.  Now more than ever we need to fix our broken health care system so that all Oregonians can get the care they need, when they need it.

It is inexcusable that more than 80,000 children in Oregon don’t have health insurance. We need to expand coverage and protect our children so they can live healthier lives and become productive members of society.

 As the recession continues to deepen, we need to stabilize health coverage and provide a safety net for low-income adults who are most likely to slip through the cracks because they can’t afford to get the care they need.

HB2116 is the best step available to expand coverage now and stem the tide of the uninsured in Oregon.  It would use money already within the health care system to restructure and renew the provider tax to expand coverage now and stem the tide of the uninsured in Oregon and:

• Cover 80,000 children and 100,000 low-income Oregonians
• Maximize federal matching dollars
• Bring over $1 billion in new federal dollars to Oregon

Key Health Reform Bill Passes Out of Committee. As a coalition of organizations representing over 800,000 Oregonians, we began the session with a 100 Day Countdown to Health with the goal of passing health reform by April 22. We are pleased to see real progress as HB2116 passed out of the House Health Care Committee Friday and Chair Greenlick announced his intentions to pass HB2009 out on Monday.

HB2116 will use money already within the health care system to cover Oregon’s children and more low-income adults.

As noted by Betty-Coe R. de Broekert, volunteer Executive Councilor for AARP Oregon, “access to quality, affordable coverage is increasingly difficult, especially for AARP’s 50- to 64-year-old members who are among the fastest growing groups of uninsured. With skyrocketing health care costs for both families and businesses and too many Oregonians just one illness or injury – or job layoff or loss – away from financial disaster, the cost of doing nothing is just too high. We’ve got to fix health care to help fix our economy.”

HB2116 is just one component of the health reform package before the Legislature. As Representative Kotek reminded her colleagues today, the rest of the reform package also needs to be enacted.

Tom Chamberlain, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO said, “The need for healthcare unites all Oregonians – the poor, middle class and the wealthy, young and old, the rural farmer and the inner-city teacher. That’s why we’ve partnered with advocates for kids and seniors, small business leaders and healthcare providers to ask our legislators to pass comprehensive healthcare reform. Our healthcare system must work for all Oregonians.”