Healthy Kids

Oregon to help 80,000 children get health insurance

By the end of 2007, 621,000 Oregonians were uninsured, including one of every nine children.

Today, with Oregon’s unemployment rate reaching nearly 12 percent in September, the fifth highest in the nation, the economic downturn is only accelerating the problem. More people are losing employer-sponsored commercial insurance daily and cannot afford COBRA for their families. Families USA estimates that an average of 2,690 Oregonians are losing their insurance every month.

But the expansion of Healthy Kids by the 2009 Legislature and governor has made health care for Oregon’s children look brighter.

Healthy Kids, which matches new taxes levied against hospitals and health insurers with federal funds, promises health care coverage for all Oregon children in need under age 19.

Funding and drafting plans for Healthy Kids was a remarkable achievement. And it will take another remarkable effort by doctors, health care plans and the community to complete the task.

The real impact

By the end of 2010, Healthy Kids will cover an additional 80,000 children. That will reduce the numbers of children who previously received no primary care on a regular basis and relied on emergency departments and uncompensated care when they needed help.

Facing the access challenge

The state government, health plans, clinics, hospitals and advocacy groups still have a part to play. For example, CareOregon and our clinic partners have been working for several years to develop patient-centered primary care medical homes.

• Through our Primary Care Renewal project, CareOregon continues to support the efforts of some of our clinic partners to test and expand the primary care home model.
• The state’s new Health Authority will examine how to best implement medical homes.
• CareOregon and the Oregon Primary Care Association recently received a grant to help 13 clinics in the state transition to team-based models. (See related story.)

We will continue to team with our provider network and community partners to bring improvements to care access, quality and cost.

We will also listen to suggestions from the health care community as to how we can work together to make the Healthy Kids dream a reality.

To share your thoughts, please e-mail James Schroeder, Director of Healthcare Systems, at schroederj@careoregon.org.

Planning the next steps

In Portland, health care advocates gathered Oct. 13 to discuss access to children’s health care in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties.

Read the full story...

Outreach

The state has hosted outreach events throughout the state this fall, including one scheduled for Nov. 5. For more information or to register, visit the Department of Human Services Web site.

Online Healthy Kids applications for your patients are available in English, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese.