Safety net's loss leaves ex-members of Oregon Health Plan dangling
The Oregonian
August 1, 2001
by Don Colburn
"Forty-three percent of the people covered by the Oregon Health Plan, the state's medical safety net, leave the plan within a year. Most do so because rising income from a new job or raise makes them ineligible under the plan's income limits. Trouble is, the added income that disqualifies them from coverage under the Health Plan usually is not enough to buy private insurance or pay for their health care out of pocket. Of those who leave the plan within a year of joining it... 71 percent stay uninsured."
Joan Kapowich, program and policy manager of the Oregon Office of Medical Assistance Programs:
"This is the problem with poverty. You get a better income, but you lose your health benefits."
Comment: Is it really necessary to say, once again, that we desperately need a universal, publicly administered, health insurance program?
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