FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 2, 1999
Contact:
- Bob Applegate
- (503) 378-6496
- Jon Coney
- (503) 378-6169
- Susan Fletcher
- (503) 378-6307
GOVERNOR TO PROPOSE ADDITIONAL HEALTH CARE
FUNDS
Governor John Kitzhaber announced today that he would ask the
Legislative Emergency
Board to provide an additional $6.5 million for the Oregon Health Plan
in order to fund new participants anticipated as a result of increased
outreach
efforts.
By the end of the biennium, the Oregon Health Plan will be covering
almost
11,000 more beneficiaries as a result of targeted outreach efforts,
including
those funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“I have received requests from legislators and community
leaders to
continue this outreach effort to vulnerable populations such as
homeless youth,”
Kitzhaber said. “I am sympathetic to those requests and want
to
continue that outreach, but we can’t deceive ourselves.
Healthcare costs
money and as we enroll more people in the plan, we need to set the
funding
aside to pay for them.”
Kitzhaber said he would recommend continuing the outreach,
but only
if the Emergency Board set aside the funding necessary to meet the
increased
demands on the health plan.
The governor also said he would lead the fight with the federal
Health
Care Financing Administration (HCFA) about Oregon’s ability to
manage what
services are offered under the Oregon Health Plan. The current
budget
anticipates eliminating 10 medical procedures from the
574 procedures now
covered. HCFA has indicated that it won’t accept the plan to
remove
those services.
“Without federal approval to move the line on what services are
offered,
we will be forced into a much more drastic course of action, ”said
Kitzhaber.
“Instead of making minor adjustments in what services are offered, we
will be forced to remove all coverage from literally thousands of Oregonians.
That’s unacceptable to me and it ought to be unacceptable to the federal
government.”
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