The goals of any good health care system are to ensure everyone has access to healthcare when it is needed, lower costs, and improve health.
ACCESS: Even with the national changes, it is estimated that 20 million Americans will be underinsured. Additionally, close to 30 million Americans will not be able to afford access to health care. It is not surprising that 750,000 people in the United States annually file for bankruptcy resulting from healthcare debt. Many of these people have “health insurance.” This is not expected to change.
COST: Health care in the United States is the most expensive in the world. Insurance administrative costs are higher in the United States. Provider administrative costs to collect payment from individuals and insurance companies are also higher. This translates into higher consumer prices for insurance and medical procedures. This is not expected to change – we currently lack effective cost controls.
HEALTH: Most importantly, we aren’t getting what we pay for. We pay more than most countries for our health care, yet we rank at or near the bottom in almost every measure of public health when compared to other industrialized nations. Again, this is not expected to change much.
We can do better than this.
Dan Rayfield supports a single, statewide, publicly funded comprehensive plan that will provide health care to everyone in our state, reduce costs, and improve the health of all Oregonians.
A single, statewide, publicly funded comprehensive plan will:
- Ensure all Oregonians and their families have access to health care no matter what circumstances they encounter in life.
- Put the State of Oregon’s purchasing power to work to get better prices on health care.
- Improve the health of Oregonians.
- Reduce administrative costs.
- Reduce medical provider administrative costs.
- Remove “out of network” restrictions insurance companies place on their plan members allowing all Oregonians to actually select the doctor they want.
- Fund in-home care, adult foster care, and assisted living so that seniors aren’t forced into nursing homes.