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Jonathan Oberlander Health Reform Interrupted: The Unraveling Of The Oregon Health Plan Health Affairs, January/February 2007; 26(1): w96-w105. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] [Reprints & Permissions]

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Debunking the Oregon Health Plan

Stephen A. Gregg   ( 19 December 2006 )

More Money for OHP Members

Robert R. Blandford   ( 19 December 2006 )

How Do OHP and TennCare Compare?

Patricia A. Butler   ( 11 January 2007 )

Debunking the Oregon Health Plan 19 December 2006
Stephen A. Gregg, Former Managed Care Plan Owner Send comment to journal: Re: Debunking the Oregon Health Plan sgregg1{at}earthlink.net Stephen A. Gregg	In the State biennium preceding the adoption of the Oregon Health Plan, Medicaid spending was in the order of $750 million. In the first biennium of OHP, the budget grew to $1.7 billion. Enrollment grew by 1/3 and dollars 2.5 times. The world enabled by academics were led to believe that Oregon through an empirical process of "prioritization" was reallocating a finite budget to more people. The simplest of math does not support that proposition. As the OHP proceeded in years, survival was probably extended mostly because of progressive cost shifting in provider contracts and behind-the-scenes help from insurance underwriting. We don't know the facts of that, because this is a "black-op" in health care. Indeed, most managed care medicaid members were not even governed by OHP's rationing policies. OHP collapsed because there never was a credible economic strategy, as much as we would wish otherwise.
More Money for OHP Members 19 December 2006
Robert R. Blandford, Board Member Center for Health Care Choices Send comment to journal: Re: More Money for OHP Members robertb{at}his.com Robert R. Blandford	"Health Reform Interrupted" suggests that a major problem with the OHP is that members dropped out when they had to use their own money for premiums. A solution to this problem could be a health system in which government health funding is given to all individuals up front for a personal health account of their own. If these funds were implemented in terms of universal lifetime individual HSAs, a compromise might be reached between Democrats and Republicans. I have developed such a plan at the federal level; see http://www.his.com/robertb/hlthplan.htm
How Do OHP and TennCare Compare? 11 January 2007
Patricia A. Butler, Health Policy Analyst Send comment to journal: Re: How Do OHP and TennCare Compare? butler{at}csd.net Patricia A. Butler	I hope Oberlander or another health policy researcher has the opportunity to compare the experience of the Oregon Health Plan with that of Tennessee's similarly visionary but ultimately unsuccessful TennCare program. The programs, fiscal situations, and policy contexts certainly have differences but also similarities that might inform current state health care access debates.