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Over
600, 000 Oregonians are uninsured... 117,000 of them are children.
And that raises costs for all of us.
Oregon used to have the
highest insured rate in the nation, a leader and inspiration to the
nation. We’ve gone from being the leader to ranking 37th
lowest in the nation for health care insurance coverage.
As a result, uncompensated care is skyrocketing.
The chart below shows the percentage of care in Oregon hospitals over the last
few years that is uncompensated and paid for by your premiums:
Source: OR Association of
Hospitals and Health Systems.
What does that
mean for you?
This means 10% of your insurance
premium, if you are lucky enough to have it, goes to paying the costs of the
uninsured rather than the cheaper alternative of preventative care.
Why have we fallen behind? Because extreme partisanship and a lack of leadership has kept us from
resolving our health care crises.
Prescription Drug
Purchasing Pools
Ben is committed to lowering health
care costs for all Oregonians.
A 2002 report by
Washington Citizen
Action identified prescription drug costs as the fastest growing cost in
health care spending. (
read the report)
By the beginning of 2005, drug costs were raising as much as 15% per year.
 How
to bring costs down
Purchasing pools, which bring the
costs of prescription drug costs down, operate on a simple
principal: bulk-purchasing.
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In the 2005 session, Ben was an avid
supporter of SB 329, which would have expanded Oregon's existing prescription
drug purchasing pool to private entities, such as small businesses. This
can save up to 5% on prescription drug costs.
But the bigger the pool is, the
cheaper the drugs are to everyone in the pool.
By joining a multi-state purchasing
pool,
Oregon could save between 5-15% on prescription drug purchases and pass
those savings to private businesses as well to ensure more Oregonians
have access to prescription medication. |
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For more information
on purchasing pools, read about Washington state's pooling projects.
"The Best Medicine at the Best Price"
(Jan 2005)
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(838 kb)