Oregon health insurance

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status report:
Oregon state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Oregon state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Oregon officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (1)

• Greg Walden

Our
Pick

No (4)

• Earl Blumenauer
• Peter DeFazio

• Kurt Schrader
• David Wu

how healthy is living in Oregon?

Oregon has dropped two spots from its previous position and is now ranked as the 15th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• Oregon reported low rates of occupational fatalities and preventable hospitalizations, as well as coming in 9th in the rankings for both its low levels of air pollution and its low rate of infant mortality (5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births).
• The state has also seen decreases in the prevalence of smoking (from 21.4 to 17.8 percent of the population) and deaths due to cardiovascular disease (from 370 to 246.3 deaths for every 100,000 people).
• Violent crime has seen a decline in Oregon over the past five years, from 298 to 255 offenses per 100,000 people.

The bad news:

• Challenges facing Oregon include a high percentage of uninsured residents (17 percent) and low public health care funding ($56 per person).
• In addition, the state has relatively low availability of early prenatal care (with 78.3 percent of pregnant women receiving care within their first trimester of pregnancy) and relatively low rates of immunization coverage (with 87.8 percent of 19- to 35-month-olds receiving their recommended immunizations).
• The percentage of children in poverty has climbed over the past year from 14.3 to 18.3 of the population under the age of 18.

Oregon's best and worst category rankings:

• Preventable hospitalizations – 3rd
• Prevalence of obesity (23.6 percent) – 6th
• Immunization coverage (87.8) – 38th
• Public health funding ($56 per person) – 38th
• Uninsured population (17 percent) – 39th
• Early prenatal care – 40th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Oregon.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Oregon health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Oregon here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Oregon, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Oregon have a health insurance high risk pool?

Oregon Medical Insurance Pool
Toll-free 1-800-848-7280 or (503) 225-6620 (M-F 8am-5pm)

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Oregon started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Oregon's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Oregon

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Oregon and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Oregon.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Oregon health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Oregon.

Health insurance plan report cards for Oregon

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Oregon health insurance plan report cards.

Oregon government health insurance resources

The Family Health Insurance Assistance Program – helps regon families pay the monthly premium for high-quality, private health insurance plans. FHIAP pays from 50 percent to 95 percent of the premium for Oregonians who are uninsured and meet income and other guidelines.

Healthy Kids – part of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), it is a health insurance program for children of low-income families.