OSPIRG urges the Oregon
Legislature to pass health care reform to address skyrocketing costs
Without decisive action
by lawmakers, premiums and deductibles for Oregonians with employer-provided
insurance will double by 2016, according to a new OSPIRG report. The average
family health care policy is projected to exceed a staggering $27,000 per year
if current trends go unchecked.
“Families and small businesses are
already getting hammered by sky-high health care premiums and out-of-pocket
costs, and cannot afford for rates to double,” said Laura Etherton, an advocate
with OSPIRG. “This underscores the need for the Oregon Legislature to pass health
care reform in the first 100 days of the 2009 session.”
OSPIRG attributes these high costs in large part to wasteful
health spending. The report concludes
that one out of three dollars spent on health care fuels profits for special
interests, such as the prescription drug and insurance industries, without
delivering better health care for patients.
The report spotlights two important categories of wasteful
health spending in Oregon:
- An
estimated $2.58 billion in hospital spending in Oregon goes to inappropriate,
ineffective and uncoordinated care which can cause harm to patients.
- An
estimated $437 million in health spending is lost to red tape in insurance
company bureaucracy.
OSPIRG urges the Oregon Legislature to implement cost
containment recommendations from the Oregon Health Fund Board to rein in insurance
industry red tape and reform elements of the delivery system to encourage more
effective medical care:
- Update the
health care delivery to cut waste and improve care. For example, providers
should use the best science to inform how providers manage chronic
diseases such as diabetes and heart disease to keep patients their
healthiest.
- Boost
purchasing power to negotiate a better deal for consumers and taxpayer
dollars. For example, Oregon should
expand use of Oregon's
successful prescription drug purchasing pool to save taxpayer dollars.
- Watchdog
insurance and hospital costs to protect consumers and our economy. For
example, Oregon
should set standards limiting the growth of health insurance
administrative costs to the rate of inflation.
“In the next 100 days, we have an opportunity to pass broad health reform that tames the waste,
inefficiency, and skewed incentives that drive up our health care costs,” noted
Etherton. “Oregon's
families and small businesses can’t afford to miss this opportunity.”
