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.
