Editorial: A good health care deal for Oregon
Editorial Board, The Oregonian
May 31, 2009
It was heartening to see Oregon legislative and health care leaders standing shoulder to shoulder at the state Capitol on Thursday, announcing a landmark agreement to expand access to health care.
Such access costs money, and the two sides -- once at loggerheads over how to raise it -- found enough common ground to agree on a deal.
In the best of times, this would be welcome news indeed. In today's troubled economic times, it comes as terrific news.
The legislation's centerpiece is a medical provider and insurer tax plan that will expand access to health care as never before in this state.
It means medical coverage for an additional 80,000 children and 60,000 adults in Oregon.
It means creation of 3,600 new health care jobs.
It means an infusion of more than $2 billion in leveraged federal funds into the state over the next four years.
The funding mechanism has two components: an increased tax on hospitals and a 1 percent tax on the commercial insurance premiums collected by insurers and health plans. The plan is founded on the expectation that providers and insurers will recoup most if not all their tax contributions, because each dollar raised in the state would become nearly three dollars through the federal match.
Legislative approval of the plan is no sure thing. If it passes, though, it will spark an unprecedented flow of federal cash into Oregon's tattered health care system. There's no way that wouldn't help expand coverage, improve health care and improve cost-control in the state.
Legislative analysts say the infusion would stimulate the economy, too. They estimate the provider tax would create 2,100 jobs and the insurers' tax would create 1,500.
It's not a perfect plan, but the thinking behind it was refined enough through weeks of negotiation that Oregon's largest hospitals, which will bear the brunt of the tax, got behind it.
The proof was there at the Capitol news conference. Joining Democratic legislative leaders in announcing the agreement were Andy Davidson, president and CEO of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, as well as Norm Gruber, the group's board chairman.
No insurance industry representatives were present. Parties to the negotiations, however, said most of Oregon's health insurers have agreed to collaborate in the creation of the premium tax.
This represents a remarkable opportunity for Oregon at one of its most distressing times. The agreement, contained in House Bill 2116, should be heartily endorsed by the Joint Ways and Means Sub-Committee on Human Services and swiftly approved by the full Legislature.
Link to the story: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/05/a_good_health_care_deal_for_or.html#3822433
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