Landmark health care bill passes out of committee
Courtney Sherwood, Portland Business Journal
May 29, 2009
After months of debate, the Oregon Legislature appears to have reached consensus on a plan that would provide health insurance to nearly three-quarters of the state's uninsured children and up to 50,000 poor adults.
The expanded coverage would be funded by new or higher taxes on health insurers, hospitals and Medicaid managed care plans, under House Bill 2116, which passed out of the House Revenue Committee by a 6-4 vote on Thursday. By raising more than $150 million per year, the state would be eligible for $500 million in unclaimed federal funds.
Under the compromise measure, far fewer adults will be insured than the 100,000 that proponents of expanded health care originally targeted. Hospitals, which now pay a tax of .63 percent, can expect a fourfold tax hike in the coming year.
The hospital tax will be indexed to increased reimbursements that they can expect to receive when the state's Medicaid population grows, with the aim of creating a revenue neutral impact on hospitals.
Health plans and insurers will also pay a 1 percent tax on commercial insurance premiums.
Opponents to the measure, largely negotiated in closed meetings between Legislators and health care industry groups, called it a back room deal.
"The real losers from the Democrats' predatory premium tax of 1 percent of gross premiums are the employees of small to medium sized businesses, who are the very people most likely to lose their coverage because of the rapidly rising costs of health insurance," said Rep. Ron Maurer, R-Grants Pass in a news release.
But hospital groups, which had loudly criticized earlier versions of the bill, applauded the measure that left committee on Thursday.
"This is a great day for the uninsured in Oregon," said Andy Van Pelt, spokesman for the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. "Hospitals came together with legislative leaders to forge a solution that gets us started on covering more Oregonians than we do today."
Now the full House takes up the bill. The Legislature hopes to adjourn by the end of June.
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