OregonObamaCare Coming. Unless YOU Stop It. Hearing Friday.

March 8, 2011

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After rearranging the construct of  DHS and health care delivery in the last legislature (elections have consequences) here, Democrats have set the table for ObamaCare to come to Oregon. This is an unaffordable blank check to establish OregonObamaCare (This isn’t what they’re calling it. I just thought it looked snappy all mashed up).  This bill establish a health care welfare plan, begin the process of taking control of HMO’s, rationing care (of course) and, among other things, set up a huge bureaucracy without increasing the number of doctors.
This, of course, will bankrupt the state which already has huge fiscal problems (see here and here).  Find the House bill here.  and the Senate bill here. Here’s the stated intention of the bill:
Establishes Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Plan,
operated by Oregon Health Authority according to policies
established by Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Board.
Provides comprehensive health care coverage to all individuals
residing or working in Oregon. Supplants coverage by private
insurers for health services covered by plan. Requires public
employees to be covered by plan. Creates Affordable Health Care
for All Oregon Fund. Continuously appropriates moneys in fund to
authority. Provides for implementation of plan on January 2,
2014.

Public employees are forced into this plan. Bureaucrats and elected officials should be thrown in,  too. What’s wrong with these bills? Let me count the ways…


Requires board to establish policies and approve administrative
rules for certificate of need process. Expands certificate of
need to include both new and existing health care facilities.
Repeals Oregon Health Insurance Exchange, Oregon Medical
Insurance Pool Board, Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, Office of
Private Health Partnerships, Family Health Insurance Assistance
Program and private health option under Health Care for All
Oregon Children program on January 2, 2014.
Appropriates moneys from General Fund to authority for purposes
of plan.
We have a 30-30 split in the house so I don’t know how far this will get, but the Dems enjoy an advantage in the Senate and the guy who started the Oregon Health Plan, Dr. DoOver, parks his fuzzy slippers next to his girlfriend’s at Mahonia Hall.
The lefties have set up a lobbying day on Friday, the same day this bill has a hearing. If you have time to head to Salem please do so and lobby the House and Senate members against this bills. 

Here are some of the low lights of the bill:
It appears to outlaw private insurance which makes sense I guess if you’re going for an eventual all out government take over of health care and don’t want to have any competition:

SECTION 3. { +  An insurer with a certificate of authority to
transact insurance issued by the Department of Consumer and
Business Services may not offer in this state a policy or
certificate of health insurance that covers services provided
under the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Plan. + }

OregonObamaCare will continue to control competition by requiring anyone thinking of setting up a clinic, except in rural areas, to get the state’s approval so as to limit competition:

SECTION 11. ORS 442.315 is amended to read:
442.315. (1) Any { - new hospital or new skilled nursing or
intermediate care service or - } { + health care + } facility
not excluded pursuant to ORS 441.065 shall obtain a certificate
of need from the Oregon Health Authority prior to an offering or
development.

Oregon has among the highest unemployment rate for a reason but don’t worry. When this bill kills a bunch of jobs the taxpayers will retrain you  (isn’t that nice of us?):

SECTION 8.  { + (1) The Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Board shall establish a program to operate during the first four
years of operation of the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Plan to pay for or to reimburse the costs of retraining for
workers who are displaced by the implementation of the plan.

The nice people at the state will let HMO’s stay around for awhile but the state will be bring them under more state control:

(4) With the exception of certificate of need requirements,
when applicable, the licensing and regulation of health
maintenance organizations shall be controlled by ORS 750.005 to
750.095 and statutes incorporated by reference therein.
(5) It is the policy of ORS { - 244.050, 431.250, - }
441.015 to 441.087 { - , - } { + and + } 442.015 to 442.420
{ - and 442.450 - } to encourage the growth of health
maintenance organizations as an alternative delivery system and
to provide the facilities for the provision of quality health
care to the present and future members who may enroll within
their defined service area.

And the state will have a bigger hand in rationing care at HMO’s:

The Oregon Health Authority shall issue a certificate of
need for beds, services or equipment to meet the needs or
reasonably anticipated needs of members of health maintenance
organizations when beds, services or equipment are not available
from nonplan providers.


While the ObamaCare for Oregon plan won’t supply any more doctors, we will get to pay for a whole bunch of new bureaucrats:

SECTION 9. { + (1) The Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Board shall appoint for each congressional district a district
advisory committee consisting of residents of the district, to
solicit input, receive complaints, conduct public hearings,
facilitate accountability or assist the board in any manner
deemed appropriate by the board to meet the health service needs
of residents of the congressional district.
(2) The Oregon Health Authority shall provide staff support to
each district advisory committee. + }

 
OregonObamaCare sets up what seems to be a budgetary superstructure committee and means
means testing to dictate "progressive" tax increases. Who needs elected officials?
Frankly, it's hard to imagine more "progressive" tax increases than we already have in 
Oregon, but look at this sweeping language that sets up the health care plan as pure 
welfare:

SECTION 24. { + (1) The Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Board shall develop recommendations for dedicated funding
mechanisms to finance the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Plan. In lieu of premiums, copayments, coinsurance and
deductibles, the plan must be funded by a system of dedicated,
progressive taxes that are based on the payer’s ability to pay.
The board shall consider an employer payroll tax, a graduated
personal income tax, a transaction tax on stocks and bonds, other
taxes on unearned income, a progressive surtax on higher incomes
and a progressive tax on gross business receipts divided by
full-time equivalent employment. Funding sources must be assessed
based on the capacity of the source to generate sufficient
revenue to fund the plan and maintain an adequate reserve. The
burden of the assessments must be distributed according to
ability to pay.

 
Because all state employee union members are required to be thrown into the plan, 
it takes all the money the taxpayers usually pay for their health care and dumps it into
the OregonObamaCare pot. 
SECTION 21.  { + (1) The Affordable Health Care for All Oregon
Fund is established in the State Treasury, separate and distinct
from the General Fund, consisting of moneys received under ORS
243.185 and 243.882 and sections 8 and 23 of this 2011 Act,
moneys appropriated by the Legislative Assembly and moneys
received from federal, state, county and local governments and
private sources to pay for health care services covered by the
Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Plan.
Let the rationing begin! 

The plan shall pay the costs of medically necessary health
services in the following categories within the scope prescribed
by the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Board, excluding
health services provided for cosmetic purposes only:
(a) Primary and preventive care, including health education;
(b) Specialty care;
(c) Inpatient and outpatient hospital care;
(d) Emergency care;
(e) Home health care;
(f) Prescription drugs according to a formulary;
(g) Durable medical equipment;
(h) Mental health services;
(i) Substance abuse treatment;
(j) Dental services;
(k) Chiropractic services;
(L) Basic vision and vision correction;
(m) Diagnostic imaging, laboratory services and other
diagnostic and evaluation services;
(n) Inpatient and outpatient rehabilitative services;
(o) Emergency transportation;
(p) Translation of verbal and written language;
(q) Hospice care;
(r) Podiatry;
(s) Acupuncture; and
(t) Dialysis.
(3) A person and the immediate family members of a person are
eligible to enroll in the plan if the person:
(a) Resides in this state; or
(b) Is employed in this state.
(4) Except as provided in section 2 of this 2011 Act, no
copayments, deductibles or other form of cost sharing may be
imposed on enrollees under the plan.

I’m only a short way through this bill. More later.

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