by Ariel Brantley-Dalglish

Last Friday, state economist Tom Potiowsky released a grim fiscal forecast for the 2009-11 biennium. Many options for cutting costs were explored as the Oregon legislature struggles to balance the state’s most unwieldy deficit since 2002. While painful cuts will likely be unavoidable, the legislature must also work to ensure that our tax dollars are used wisely.

The current crisis is particularly relevant in light of the fact that health care costs have been spiraling out of control for years. Premium costs alone rose 4.7 times faster than average family incomes from 2000 to 2007. A study conducted by Families USA found that in that period, Oregon premiums rose by 85.2 percent, while earnings rose by only 18 percent. With more Oregonians losing their jobs and wages stagnant, Oregon families and small businesses cannot continue to throw their money away into a wasteful system.

One of several proposed cost cutting mechanisms recommended by the Oregon health fund board and included in HB 2009 makes the insurance market place more transparent and accountable to consumers by lowering premium costs through the unified purchasing power of an “Insurance Exchange”. Separate from the “public employers health cooperative” which would allow state and local governments to use fortified purchasing power to save taxpayer dollars, the Health Insurance Exchange would give individuals and potentially small businesses the power to negotiate lower rates and better coverage.

A purchasing pool like this one would help small business owners like Becky Jarvis afford quality health care for her family and her employees. Right now, the computer service and repair business that Becky and her husband run out of their home in Aloha is too small of a company for them to qualify for group insurance. The premium costs for Becky and her husband to cover themselves and their son rose 46 % last year to a hefty $495 a month. Both she and her husband have $2500 deductibles, while their son’s plan has a $500 deductible. They are unable to afford the cost of health care for their one part time employee.

Without health reform, a recent OSPIRG study found that the average family insurance premium will more than double by 2016, to over $27,000 per year. Similarly, the Oregon health plan will be faced with unsustainable cost increases. In the face of such dire economic times, Oregonians are in no position to meet the exorbitant costs of rising insurance premiums. We must use our ingenuity and combined power to combat these costs and secure quality, affordable health care for us all.