40,000 in Oregon lose health insurance

By The Associated Press

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The departure of more than one-third of the 88,000 poor people from the state-subsidized Oregon Health Plan Standard program has far exceeded the expectations of many state officials.

Advocates for the poor say the premiums are too expensive for some people and the government may have overestimated the ability of people to mail a check.

"It's an enormous barrier," said Ellen Pinney, director of the Oregon Health Action Committee. "Let alone the $6, there is the whole issue of writing a check or getting a money order, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and putting it in the mail to this place in Portland that must receive it by the due date."

Those dropped can return after six months. The first wave of people barred from the Oregon Health Plan Standard will be eligible to return to the plan next month, and groups such as Pinney's are urging the state to make the process easier by allowing participants to pay cash in person at social-services offices.

Rep. Jeff Kruse, a Sutherlin Republican who helped design the premium and copayment schedules for enrollees, said he hasn't been surprised by the drop.

"It wasn't something we were trying to do, but it's something we knew would happen," Kruse said.

Kruse said enrollees who have lost coverage because they didn't pay their premiums are being forced to change the way they view the program.

In the past, people signed up for coverage when they were sick or hurt. Paying premiums was always viewed as optional, because people who were kicked off could sign up again any time a need for medical care arose, Kruse said.

"It's not that I wish people anything bad, but there needs to be consequences for not living up to the responsibility that we've put into it," he said. "And that's why we have the six-month disenrollment."

Oregon Health Plan Standard is a slimmed-down version of the state's health-insurance program for low-income residents. About 15 to 20 percent of the Health Plan's participants are in the standard program, which is for adults who aren't blind, disabled, elderly or pregnant and who are below the poverty line, which is $748 a month for an individual and $1,010 for a couple.

State statistics show that most enrollees are about 40 percent below the poverty level and tend to be jobless and often homeless and have a high prevalence of mental illness and drug or alcohol abuse.

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