About Oregonians for Health Security
Oregonians for Health Security is uniting working families, small business owners, seniors, health care workers, community leaders, and policy makers to fight for quality, affordable and secure health care that we can all count on.
Find out more about our current work!
Health care reform must ensure:
• Quality health care for everyone with a choice of doctors and plans, without gaps in access or coverage;
• Preventive care as part of any basic benefit plan that promotes health and eliminates economic and racial disparities;
• Controlled costs by providing care that is cost-efficient and medically effective; and
• Financing that is fair with responsibility shared by employers, individuals, and government.
Highlights of our campaign’s work include:
Passing Legislation to Expand Access and Affordability
We are working to pass pro-active health care legislation like expanding the Oregon Health Plan and Medicaid. We are also working to ensure that The Healthy Oregon Act includes quality affordable and accessible health care for all Oregonians.
2007 Legislative Accomplishments
The 2007 legislative session included many health care proposals. Great strides were made in reducing costs and increasing accountability. Voters will have to join with lawmakers to increase access and we’ll all have to work to design a better health care system. While there is much more work to do, we thank legislators for enacting common-sense solutions to help Oregon’s Health Care Crisis.
Reducing Costs
Expand the Prescription Drug Purchasing Pool—SB 362B Expanded OPDP to include Oregonians and any private business that would like to participate. Increasing participants in the pool will increase our negotiating power and reduce the cost of prescription drugs for Oregonians.
Allow Collective Insurance Purchasing– SB 426 Creating a statewide collaborative insurance purchasing pool for education employees could reduce health care costs and increase funding for classrooms. Collective purchasing for small businesses would help reduce insurance costs and ensure quality care for small business employees.
Increasing Accountability
Health Insurance Transparency—HB 2213 Consumers have a right to know how much health care services are going to cost them. Under this legislation, Health Plans will be required to provide information about enrollee's costs for certain services or procedures.
Community Benefit Reporting– HB 3290 The Office of Health Policy and Research will establish a standard system for hospitals in Oregon to record charity care and other community benefits. Once the report is issued, the public will have a way to compare the policies and practices of hospitals.
Increasing Small Employer Pool—HB 2002 By changing the definition of a small employer for insurance purposes from 25 to 50, it creates a simpler regulatory environment and ensures that small businesses protections of a larger pool, especially protection against rate increases based on health experience.
Next Steps: Improving Access- Now in the hands of Oregonians
Affordable Health Care for all of us– SB 329 We must create a health care system that provides access to evidence-based health care services for all of us. Reform must include cost containment and creation of a funding system that is fair, with individuals, employers and government all contributing. With passage of this bill, we now have a roadmap for health reform, but it will take active participation by Oregonians to design the new system.
Click here to see our accomplishments from 2006 and earlier.
Creating Demand for Health Care Reform
We have built a movement of Oregonians who declare that health care is their #1 priority. We have signed up 62,000 Health Care Voters and sign up more every day!