Health Care Reform Advocacy

Request for Proposals: Promoting Partnerships to Strengthen Health Care Reform Advocacy

With skyrocketing health care costs and deteriorating access to affordable care, there is agreement both at the national level and throughout Oregon that health care needs to be more affordable, available to everyone, and focused on improved health outcomes.

In June of 2009, two bills (HB 2116 and HB 2009) passed during Oregon’s 2009 legislative session which expanded health care coverage to all uninsured children and 35,000 uninsured adults, and created an Oregon Health Authority, which is responsible for streamlining and aligning state health purchasers and programs to maximize efficiency, organize state health policy and health services, and implement health reform policies and programs. HB 2009 also established the Oregon Health Policy Board (OHPB), which serves as the policy-making and oversight body for the Oregon Health Authority and is responsible for improving the health care delivery system (access, cost, quality) as well as improving the health of Oregonians. The OHPB will be developing recommendations the will lead to legislation for the 2011 Legislative Session.

Consequently, there is an important opportunity for health reform advocacy efforts to shape the next phases of health care reform implementation, which may include further expansion of health care coverage, and mechanisms to curb health care costs, create a more efficient, effective health care delivery system, and address health disparities inherent in the current system.