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.
On June 28, 2007, Governor Kulongoski signed the Healthy Oregon Act into law, which established the Oregon Health Trust Board. The board will gather public input and create a comprehensive health care reform plan, in cooperation with other state agencies, to be introduced in the 2009 legislature. The board will also be responsible for designing an insurance pool to provide affordable, comprehensive health benefits for individuals and businesses.
In January 2007, Governor Kulongoski’s Healthy Kids Plan (HB 2201) was introduced in the Oregon State Legislature. The Healthy Kids Plan would have used an 84.5 cent increase in the state tobacco tax to expand public health care coverage to more than 100,000 children. After intense lobbying by the tobacco industry, the legislation failed to pass during the 2007 legislative session. However, the legislature did agree to refer the issue to voters. The plan will appear as Measure 50 on the November 2007 ballot.
On August 9, 2007, Governor Kulongoski signed the Healthy Kids program authorizing legislation (SB 3) into law. But Oregon voters rejected the tobacco tax hike that appeared on the November 6, 2007 ballot, so there is currently no funding for the expansion.
Oregon Expansion Resources
Oregon in the News
- Health Care for All Oregonians (Mail Tribune, September 9, 2008)
- Oregon governor to revive Health Kids Initiative (The Oregonian, March 22, 2008)
- Drawing Lots for Health Care (New York Times, March 13, 2008)
- Health care at stake in lottery (The Oregonian, January 8, 2008)
- Measure 50: Voters Reject Increase in Cigarette Tax (The Register Guard, November 7, 2007)
For general resources on state expansions, see Other Resources.
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