Victory Update:

2009 was an incredible year for Healthcare Reform.  And it couldn’t have come at a better time - families and businesses are paying more each year for healthcare, while health insurance companies are squeezing out profits and even refusing to cover people when they get sick.

For years, OSPIRG has been working to stop the skyrocketing cost of health care while improving quality.   

For the last year, OSPIRG Advocate Laura Etherton (that’s her speaking at a news conference) has been working with the Oregon Health Fund Board to hammer out a recommendation to the Legislature.  

At the same time, the OSPIRG chapters collected photo petitions from hundreds of students to the Board, testified at hearings (that’s our SOU Chair with Representative Bates) and generated media coverage of the issue.



Turns out, our work is paid off.  In June, the Oregon State Legislature passed House Bill 2009 which aims to control rising costs, and House bill 2116 which expands coverage for children and some low-income adults.

This set the precedent for the debate in Washington, D.C.  Many of the cost-cutting measures we were able to put into our bill in Oregon were included in federal Healthcare Reform legislation that passed through both houses of Congress in December, despite heavy opposition from the insurance industry.

How You Can Help

This year it will be important to strengthen regulations and continue to focus on how we can cut costs and improve quality.  While these two pieces of healthcare reform are incredible first steps towards quality, affordable healthcare for Oregonians, there is still work to be done.  OSPIRG will focus on educating the campus and continuing to sound the drumbeat across the state about the need to cut further healthcare costs while improving quality.

Read our new health care report here!

Read our report on how to cut health care costs.