I am relying on the press release here, but there seems to be an interesting article on the Oregon Health Plan by Jonathan Oberlander. The writer of the release rehearses all of the standard tropes about the need for revenues and the problems of consumerism but provides this insightful conclusion:
According to Oberlander, the most important lesson of the Oregon experience for other states ?is that the task is not simply to enact coverage expansions–it is to sustain them.? He suggests that the strongest challenge to sustainability is increasing medical costs, which leads to a catch-22: Avoiding cost controls, and thus avoiding fights with medical industry stakeholders, ?is perhaps the key to short-term political success.? However, the absence of cost control ?may be, in the long run, the Achilles? heel of state-led health reforms.?
So, the question comes back again to controlling costs and rationing care. Would you rather make your own decisions on care or would you prefer people you?ve never met and likely won?t meet in Raleigh at the Division of Medical Assistance and in the General Assembly to make those decisions for you. You might make your decisions based on cost and health, they may consider politics.
