About the Oregon Health Fund Board

Created by Senate Bill 329 (the Healthy Oregon Act), the Oregon Health Fund Board is working to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure access to health care for all Oregonians, contain health care costs, and address issues of quality in health care.  The seven members of the Board were appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Oregon Senate. The Board is assisted in its work by Executive Director Barney Speight and the staff of the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research. The Board is also supported by the work of six committees, each of which is developing recommendations to the Board based on the Board’s design assumptions. 

• The Benefits Committee is developing recommendations for a set of essential health services that should be available to all Oregonians under a comprehensive reform plan.


• The Delivery System Committee is providing recommendations to create more effective and efficient models of health care delivery that will provide high-quality, timely, efficient, effective, and safe health care to address the health needs of all Oregonians.  In addition, the Oregon Quality Institute work group of the Delivery System Committee will make recommendations on the State’s role in building on existing efforts to develop a public-private entity to coordinate the creation, collection and reporting of cost and quality information to improve health care purchasing and delivery.

 

• The Eligibility and Enrollment Committee is developing recommendations on eligibility requirements (including affordability), enrollment and disenrollment procedures, and outreach.  This will include the level of financial participation by low and moderate income Oregonians, and cost-sharing strategies that could be combined with the essential health services to make health coverage more accessible.

 

• The Finance Committee is developing recommendations on strategies to finance the expansion of health care coverage to uninsured and low income Oregonians, as well as proposing necessary and appropriate changes to the regulation of Oregon’s individual (non-group) health insurance market.  The Committee's work assumes a legal requirement that Oregonians must maintain health insurance coverage (i.e., an individual mandate).  The Committee will also make recommendations regarding a model for an Insurance Exchange.

 

• The Federal Laws Committee is developing findings regarding the impact of federal law requirements (related to, for example, Medicaid and Medicare) on achieving the goals of the Health Fund Board, focusing particularly on barriers to reducing the number of uninsured Oregonians. 

 

• The Health Equities Committee is developing multicultural strategies for the Board on program eligibility and enrollment procedures and policy recommendations to reduce health disparities through delivery system reform, outreach processes, and benefit design.