I looked over her response again. “It's a very confusing maze for the public to navigate.” I agreed with that wholeheartedly after just two minutes spent looking at the website. She continued, “We don't want people to disqualify themselves unnecessarily. We want them to apply so we can screen for every possible avenue of help.”
This was the answer I received after sending a request for eligibility information to the Oregon Health Plan Central Office. Her words were friendly, helpful, and yet tiring. Everything seems to be a “maze” these days with more and more people being told they’ll get help, after they fill out a little more paperwork, or after seeing the branch office, or after the budget gets worked out. It’s all tiring.
Taking a breath, I look over the other material she sent. Reading through, I realized that sometimes you can get caught up in seeing how far you have to go, and you forget how far you’ve already gone. Since 1987 Oregon has taken major steps forward in providing health care coverage for all Oregonians. By 1998 a state agency had been set up and the first enrollments into the plan had been made. This agency has provided Medicare patients with prescription medications that aren’t covered under Medicare. It has provided low income adults and children basic insurance benefits they couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. It also provides much needed mental health and chemical dependency services. This is a program that does good things for people who need it. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, it is now doing good things for less people, at more of a cost.
In 2003, as the state budget problems increased, some of the biggest cuts were made to the relatively new Oregon Health Plan (OHP). Pregnant women, previously covered by the OHP, were now ineligible due to their income level. Since then, every year, the legislation has been forced to reduce the amount of services provided. While the state is trying its best to deal with a faltering budget, the people who need the services are being hurt. One family advocate, who works for a local school district, commented on her experiences with the Oregon Health Plan.
“The process can be painful.” She begins. “I hear more then one person saying that they are only a few hundred dollars over the limit, so they can’t be covered. One family had a daughter go to work for a couple of months which increased their overall household income, and they were kicked off of their plan. She’s a single mother with four kids in high school and middle school. They are now trying to reapply and are waiting for the paperwork to reach the right office and be assessed. It’s a really time consuming process. Along with this, they are trying to deal with kids who are off their medication now because they can’t afford them. It’s a great plan once you get on, but getting on is hard.”
She went on to say that staying on the OHP is getting harder. The clients have to be reassessed every few months to make sure their income levels are still within the newly established limits to keep them qualified for services. While this process makes sense, in order to provide insurance to the people who really need it, a plan needs to be made to ensure the services the OHP currently provides are kept going. While public education and health care are always on the docket to be discussed, nothing ever seems to be decided. From the beginning, the legislature realized it did not ever budget enough for their projected plan and the same question gets asked, Where is the money going to come from? That is a good question.
It’s depressing to watch something good slowly unravel. The Oregon Health Plan is a good thing. It is taking practical measures to help low-income families get health coverage. The problem here is not that people need help; it’s that the greater community has seemed to stop trying to help them. We all know that the state is having budget problems, and we all know that essential services are suffering. So why isn’t the greater community of Oregon stepping in? Why haven’t more fund-raisers or state dinners been given in the name of universal health care to Oregonians? The Oregon Health Plan is something the people in this state not only need to maintain, but actively support, otherwise it’s just another good idea that no one’s acting on.
