Oregon Health Plan is Oregon's version of Medicaid (California has Medi-Cal); people who do not make much money can get their basic healthcare needs covered. But if they make a little MORE money, they end up not eligible.
For those people, Oregon is working on something called a Basic Health Program, BHP, to provide free care for an income bracket less close to the bottom. One snag: early analysis shows that the people who make too much money to qualify for even BHP could see their premiums go up because of the creation of BHP.
The issues are near and dear to the hearts of the people in Health Care for All Oregon, HCAO. The vice-president of HCAO's board, Dr. Antonio (Tony) Germann and Michael Collins, Director of Managed Care for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs give an interview about overall efforts to get health insurance to more people, and about BHP in particular.