Oregon is at the forefront of health care reform. Both national and local media, including Street Roots, has been covering the planned changes over the past two years. More recently, a multi-million dollar ad campaign has begun to educate residents on what’s becoming available and how the new health care system will work. Go to www.coveroregon.org to find out more.
Coordinating these efforts around the state are what’s called coordinated care organizations, also known as CCOs. In the Portland region, a group called Health Share of Oregon is working with hospitals, social-service agencies and local health departments to coordinate the new health care system.
At the heart of the health care reform effort is how to reshape the future of the industry, save costs and prove a healthier Oregon, both individually and collectively.
Housing is one of the tools being talked about as a cost preventive measure (see page 8) and a way to provide a healthy quality of life for people experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness.
Street Roots and many experts, including Central City Concern, believe that in order for health care reform in Oregon and around the nation to be successful, housing must be a key component of the resources allocated to help vulnerable population get healthy and save costs.
In 2012, as a part of its health care reform effort, New York received a waiver from the federally funded Medicaid and Medicare administrators, allowing the state to direct $86 million of its Medicaid budget toward funding supportive housing programs. The state also applied for another waiver that would generate $150 million each year that would be used for expanding the availability of supportive housing.
The idea of providing housing as a cost-savings measure is something that advocates and many health care providers have known for decades. Providing stable housing not only saves lives, but also saves the entire medical system money.
It seems like a no brainer, right? We believe so.
In so many key debates nationally, housing for our most vulnerable citizens, is left out of the conversation. Health care reform provides the opportunity to bring two very different ideological camps together. Both bleeding heart liberals and staunch conservatives should be able to get behind a plan to use health care dollars for housing — especially if it’s fiscally responsible and saves local communities money. Giving people an opportunity to be successful in life is icing on the cake.
We still have a long way to go on the health care front, but by providing services and housing to people accessing the system, we’re on the right path to becoming a more healthy society.