Shutdown tests if health care is a core value.
Mike Huntington in the Corvallis Gazette Times
HCAO’s Nick Campbell interviewed on The Young Turks!
Nick Byron Campbell interviewed on The Young Turks:
Operations May update
In a top-of-meeting activity that E.D. Mimi McDonell has created and that may become standard for all committee meetings, the Committee saw a few bullet points about what each of the other committees was doing.
Finance Committee May 2025 update
In a top-of-meeting activity that E.D. Mimi McDonell has created and that may become standard for all committee meetings, the Committee saw a few bullet points about what each of the other committees was doing.
Chair Bruce Goldberg and E.D. McDonell, who were at the Governing Board meeting on May 15, praised the GB strategic planning activity. Chair Goldberg said approvingly that the “Board began to sort out what are the key tasks” and letting minutiae fall by the wayside. He also summarized Gov. Kitzhaber’s speech to the GB as criticizing the current system as too expensive, too complex and inefficient. He could not say whether Gov.K is “on board” with the GB’s work, referring those who want to know to ask Kitzhaber himself.
Governance Board May 2025
This five-hour meeting (including a lunch break) consisted of announcements, review, strategic planning and a visit from former Governor John Kitzhaber.
Finance and Revenue May update
The committee received Kim Yee’s Euler diagram of relationships between the work of the committee and the consultants Milliman and ECONorthwest. While Milliman is serving four of the UHP Committees, ECONw is working only for F&R, this committee. It was possible (for the first time) for committee members to have significant input into what the scope of a consultant’s work would be.
Plan Design committee May update
Eligibility: The Committee discussed how to change its straw proposal. Many points were raised about tough cases, including minors, children, incarcerated individuals, out of state workers, travelers, overseas travelers, nonresident students, students going out of state, retirees going out of state, university students’ insurance, seasonal workers who work in more than one state. Result: needs more discussion and work.
Behavioral Health: straw proposal was tweaked to meet GBs comments.
Long-Term Care (LTSS): Helen will recruit for the subcommittee that was approved by the GB.
Provider reimbursement – there was a report from consultants and discussion.
Operations April 2025 update
Proposal to structure the UHP as a public corporation was accepted by the Board March 20.
Committee approved developing a proposal to hold funds for the UHP in a “hybrid captive and exempt” fund in the Oregon State Treasury. The treasury would handle banking and investment for the UHP, utilizing some but not all features of the state system, similar to what SAIF and others do now. No significant discussion or changes to the staff report.
Finance and Revenue April 2025 update
The main business was a presentation on Healthcare Administrative Costs by Don Osborne from Vancouver Coastal Health in British Columbia. Vancouver Coastal Health handles a budget of $6.2 Bn Canadian [sc: about 10-15% of the projected budget for universal health care in Oregon] and has numerous interesting differences from our envisioned system. Its goal is to keep admin/support costs under 10% of that budget.
Community Engagement March 2025 update
The main business was a presentation by, and discussion with, Rebecca Schoon, Communications Chair for HCAO, and Michael Lighty, for 25 years with the California chapter of NNU and other work for universal health care.