True Health Care Reform Should Deliver For Consumers & Small Businesses
It is part of our mission at Oregon Action to reduce the health care disparities that result from structural inequities in communities and the health care system. Our members are among the hardest hit in this healthcare crisis. Their struggle to dig their way out of the hole that the Great Recession left is made immeasurably more difficult because of skyrocketing out-of-pocket healthcare costs and insurance premiums that increase yearly by 20% or more. If this trend continues, many, many more Oregon families will find themselves with medical costs they cannot pay, or without insurance they could not afford, and the healthcare crisis in Oregon will only become bleaker. But where there is crisis, there is also opportunity—the opportunity to take bold, innovative steps.
Establishing an Health Insurance Exchange here in Oregon is one of those bold steps. But only if the exchange gives consumers and small business owners the market power they need will true and lasting relief come to some of most vulnerable Oregonians, the working families of Oregon.
Oregon’s legislature is setting up an Exchange right now (Senate Bill 99), and the direction they choose to move in will impact our lives for years to come. They’ve heard plenty from the insurance industry, who have spent millions of dollars since 2009 to influence Oregon politics. Oregon Action is working hard with our coalition partners to counter that influence and make sure that our politicians hear from consumers and small business owners too.
But we need your help to make sure our voices are louder and clearer than the voices of Big Insurance.
To learn how to get involved with this campaign, click here.
To view Senate Bill 99, click here.