State Expansions: Oregon
In 2006, Senators Bates and Westlund created a broad coalition of health care providers, advocates, and business leaders to address health care reform in Oregon. The coalition combined its ideas with proposed reforms from former Governor Kitzhaber’s Archimedes Plan, the Oregon Business Council proposal, and Governor Kulongoski’s Oregon Health Policy Commission to create SB 329, the Healthy Oregon Act.
In January 2007, Governor Kulongoski's Healthy Kids Plan, which would have used funds from a tobacco tax increase to extend coverage to more than 100,000 children, was introduced to the Oregon State Legislature. After intense lobbying by the tobacco industry, the legislation failed to pass during the 2007 legislative session. The legislature referred the issue to voters, but the November 2007 ballot initiative to increase the tax also failed.
On June 28, 2007, Governor Kulongoski signed the Healthy Oregon Act into Chapter 697 of Oregon law, establishing the Oregon Health Fund Board. The board gathered public input and created a comprehensive health care reform plan, in cooperation with other state agencies, with the intention of introducing it as a bill in the 2009 legislature. The plan recommends a tax on hospitals and health insurers to be used for covering the state's uninsured children as well as many uninsured low-income adults by 2013. The plan would cover all Oregonians by 2019. The board's final recommendations are available online.
In 2009, Governor Kulongoski included over $5 million in his proposed 2009-2011 budget to implement some of the recommendations of the Oregon Health Fund Board, including those pertaining to quality of care. He also revived the effort to enact the Healthy Kids Plan to cover all Oregon kids by including funding for the initiative, via taxes on insurance plans and hospitals, in his budget proposal. A summary of the proposed budget is available online.
In the legislature, HB 2009, which would implement many of the Oregon Health Fund Board's recommendations, was introduced in 2009. It would expand the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) for adults; cover all uninsured kids in Oregon; establish a state health authority; create a Health Insurance Exchange and Quality Care Institute; and levy new taxes on health plans and hospitals to fund these and other health activities.
Oregon Expansion Resources
For general resources on state expansions, see Other Resources.
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