Legislation

Future Health Care Legislation

The most important item for HCAO-Action to discuss with legislators is probably the plan to close the funding shortfall in healthcare that we know will be coming in the next few biennia. Measure 101 was a stop gap measure that covers the shortfall only through June 2019. We know that federal matching funds for the Medicaid expansion will decrease in the next biennium. The federal government may also change other policies to endanger health care funding.

Ask your legislators what they think should be done before the 2019 session to plan for the revenue increases that we know will be needed to protect the healthcare of Oregonians.

Universal Access to Healthcare Workgroup

Please see our home page for details about the legislative workgroup brainstorming about possible future legislation. You are also encourage to follow the Universal Access to Healthcare Workgroup.

GunViolence as a Public Health Issue

HCAO-Action has adopted the following policy.

Most gun owners support responsible gun ownership, including safe and secure storage and use of guns. Nevertheless, guns are used to kill more than 30,000 Americans and cause more than 60,000 injuries each year. Health Care for All Oregon –Action (HCAO-Action) agrees with many others that we need a public health approach to this growing crisis.

HCAO-Action advocates universal access to evidence-based health care, and we advocate evidence-based gun policy as well. To that end, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the nation’s leading public health entity, must be charged with leading and adequately funding research relating to the gun violence public health crisis in our country. Despite unfortunate national policy which has inhibited research related to gun violence, initial scientific evidence supports a few conclusions, which inform policies that we feel need to be implemented.

The health effects of gun violence go beyond direct causation of death and injury, being deeply implicated in racial and socio-economic inequity in health status and outcomes. We believe that an equitable universal publicly funded healthcare system is part of the racial and social justice response to these inequities.
Read .pdf here.

HJR 203 HOPE Amendment

HJR 203, the HOPE amendment, died in the Senate Committee on Health Care. The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) did polling on the measure, and the polling results were essentially the same as HCAO polling done in March of 2015. With the small margin of support that the polling indicated, senators were not willing to risk what they perceived would be the potential harm that the loss of the HOPE amendment on the 2018 ballot would bring about.

As would be expected, younger voters and voters of color were very strongly in favor of the HOPE amendment. Arguments that having the HOPE amendment on the ballot would drive turnout to help all things progressive were not sufficiently believed by senators to persuade them to risk what they felt was too great a chance of a potential loss.
Click here to see the full bill, including a list of sponsors

HB 4018 CCO Reform

HB 4018 passed both chambers. The first vote in the house was 32-26, with Republicans Helfrich and Parrish for and Democrats Barker, Clem, Evans, McKeown, and Witt against. After changing the bill from requiring CCO governing boards to follow open meeting laws to requiring them to follow a relatively decent open meeting process described in the bill, it was approved in the senate 28-1 (Baertschiger against), and then approved 59-0 in the house. The Oregon Health Authority will write rules to implement the open process, which should be functional by the beginning of the next contract period. This change is an important step in the right direction. See full bill text here.

HB 4005 Drug Pricing Transparency

Rep. Rob Nosse will introduce a prescription drug pricing transparency bill – HB 4005. See full bill text here.

HB 4005 passed both chambers. The vote in the house was 46-14, with Republicans Barreto, Boles, Bonham, Esquival, Findley, Hayden, Heard, Kennemer, Nearman, Reschke, Sprenger, Stark, Whismant, and Wilson against. The senate vote was 25-4, with
Republicans Baertschiger, Bentz, Girod, and Hansell against. The bill will only require pricing transparency information if the price increases more than 10% in one year for a drug for which one course or a one month supply costs more than $100.

HB 4076 Small Donor Funded Electons

HB 4076 (small donor funded elections) and HB 4156 (some controls on Rx prices charged by
insurance companies) died in the House Committee on Rules and Health Care, respectively. See full bill text and sponsors here.

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Future Health Care Legislation​