Our Advocacy Efforts
Access to Care
Medicaid Funding
Mental Health Treatment
Reducing Tobacco Use
Health Care & Prescription Drug Costs
Hospital Economic Impact
Access to Care
We believe that access to care must be maintained for all, including the more than 400,000 Oregonians now covered through the state's Medicaid expansion. Around 95 percent of adults and 98 percent of children in Oregon now have coverage, and that percentage can still grow.
Access also means being able to see doctors in a timely way, wherever you live. We're in favor of protecting access in our rural communities and ensuring there are enough health care workers to provide access in all parts of the state.
Finally, we believe that any future health care reform should work toward a simple goal: to improve the health of our communities including people's access to care.
Reducing Tobacco Use
Every hour one Oregonian dies from tobacco-related illness. Additionally, Oregon teens are falling victim to Big Tobacco companies who promote vaping highly-addictive nicotine. One in five high school seniors reported vaping in the last month of 2018, while one in 10 eighth-graders reported vaping in the past year.
Our Health Oregon believes that tobacco use in Oregon, especially among our teens, is an immediate health crisis. That’s why we worked to pass HB 2270, which will now allow the people to decide whether to increase the price of tobacco by $2 to reduce use and fund Medicaid and smoking cessation programs.
We continue to build a coalition of concerned Oregonians who are willing to take a stand against Big Tobacco to tell them we will not allow them to harm our teens and our communities. If you would like to be a part of this effort, sign up here today.
With 8,000 Oregonians dying a year from tobacco-related illness, the time to act is now. Join our growing team of activists if you agree!
Medicaid Funding
We support health coverage for all Oregonians. We believe every Oregonian should have access to health care regardless of their health status, or their ability to pay.
We support Oregon's Medicaid expansion, made possible by the Affordable Care Act, which added 400,000 Oregonians to the Oregon Health Plan.
This community has helped to protect Medicaid for our state's vulnerable citizens, particularly in the fight over Measure 101, which would have cut funding significantly.
And going forward, we'll continue to fight against threats to this important program--so that all our state's citizens are able to get the care they need.
Health Care & Prescription Drug Costs
We support efforts to maintain Oregon's position as a national leader in improving our health care system, with the goal of improving health and patient satisfaction while controlling costs.
Oregon hospitals all have strong financial assistance policies designed to help patients with their bills when appropriate. Hospital leaders are working hard to ensure these programs are there for all who need them.
We support access to effective, affordable prescription medications for all Oregonians. State leaders are engaged in an ongoing conversation on the best ways to meet this goal. We support these efforts, and we are part of the conversation.
Members of this community were integral in the fight to pass a pricing transparency bill in the 2018 Legislative Session. We worked together with the good people at the Oregon Coalition for Affordable Prescriptions to pass that bill. And we'll be working with them in upcoming months to build on that success.
Mental Health Treatment
Oregon hospitals are front-line providers of mental health services. Thousands of mental health patients, many of them in crisis, are seen in hospital emergency departments every year.
Oregonians with mental health issues deserve a network of care that works, one that puts patients first.
Our Health Oregon is a part of the statewide conversation about mental health reform and continues to advocate for solutions that will provide the highest quality of care to patients.
Hospital Economic Impact
In Oregon, health care jobs in hospitals and clinics are important economic cornerstones within communities.
Health care directly impacts the Oregon economy by helping sustain or grow local economies statewide. Not only do Oregon health care employers support economies in every community across the state, Oregon hospitals employ approximately 62,278 people.
When accounting for hospital purchases of goods and services from other businesses, hospitals support one of every 20 jobs outside the hospital walls. In smaller Oregon communities, this number can be as high as 1 in 10 jobs.