The recently passed health care reform legislation will continue to allow CareOregon to fulfill our mission to assure access to high-quality health care for low-income Oregonians. CareOregon’s priorities around access, coverage, innovation, quality and payment reform are all enabled by this historic legislation.

One of the biggest policies changes is Medicaid expansion. Medicaid will now be used to expand coverage to around 15 million more Americans, with the federal government picking up most of the costs to states. Starting January 1, 2014, all low-income, non-elderly individuals with incomes below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level—the FPL is currently $1,837.50 monthly for a family of four—will be eligible for Medicaid. Thousands of Oregonians will be eligible for Medicaid who would otherwise have been uninsured.

CareOregon’s 2009 federal legislative agenda not only included Medicaid expansion as a priority, but also included Special Needs Plan reauthorization under Medicare Advantage, support for new medical home demonstration projects and increased payments for primary care providers. We are proud to say that each one of these items is accomplished through health reform. Our 2010 agenda and beyond is to preserve and improve this tremendous overhaul.

Our sincere thanks go to the six (of seven) members of the Oregon Congressional delegation who voted in favor of health care reform. I have named their health staff members as well, who were tremendously influential and helpful during the entire process, and will continue to play a critical role as implementation begins.

• Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Christa Shively
• Congressman Peter DeFazio and Ed Hill
• Senator Jeff Merkley and Susan Lexer
• Congressman Kurt Schrader and Jeremiah Rigsby
• Congressman David Wu and Nils Tillstrom
• Senator Ron Wyden and Emily Katz (no relation)

Finally, I wanted to share an advertisement (pictured here) that ran in the well-known DC publication Roll Call at the same time as the health care vote. CareOregon contributed to the running of this ad through our membership in two national trade associations; the Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC); two organizations that work very hard to represent the health care safety net across the country.