{"id":8133,"date":"2012-06-23T11:51:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T18:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=8133"},"modified":"2012-06-23T11:51:38","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T18:51:38","slug":"oregon-a-laboratory-for-obamacare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/23\/oregon-a-laboratory-for-obamacare\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon a Laboratory for Obamacare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although it is soon to change, if the ACA survives, Oregon, one of the first states to provide health insurance to poor adults, can extend their unusual health care plan to all.  Now, there are insufficient resources to cover everyone.  After determining the resources available, Oregon calculates how many people they can cover under the Oregon Health Plan.  Then they hold a lottery among all who qualify.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"23OHP\"When Wendy Parris shattered her ankle, the emergency room put it in an air cast and sent her on her way. Because she had no insurance, doctors did not operate to fix it. A mother of six, Ms. Parris hobbled around for four years, pained by the foot, becoming less mobile and gaining weight.<\/p>\n

But in 2008, Oregon opened its Medicaid rolls to some working-age adults living in poverty, like Ms. Parris. Lacking the money to cover everyone, the state established a lottery<\/strong>, and Ms. Parris was one of the 89,824 residents who entered in the hope of winning insurance. <\/p>\n

With that lottery, Oregon became a laboratory for studying the effects of extending health insurance to people who previously did not have it. Health economists say the state has become the single best place to study a question at the center of debate in Washington as the Supreme Court prepares to rule, likely next week, on the constitutionality of President Obama\u2019s health care law: What are the costs and benefits of coverage? <\/p>\n

In a continuing study<\/a>, an all-star group of researchers following Ms. Parris and tens of thousands of other Oregonians has found that gaining insurance makes people feel healthier, happier and more financially stable<\/strong>. The insured also spend more on health care, dashing some hopes of preventive-medicine advocates who have argued that coverage can save money \u2014 by keeping people out of emergency rooms, for instance. In Oregon, the newly insured spent an average of $778 a year, or 25 percent, more on health care than those who did not win insurance<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>] <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for me, I lost in the 2008 lottery and did not win my SSDI appeal until late 2009.  For me, I found that spending more on health care after gaining insurance is temporary, brought on by going without health care after loosing mine in 2006 when my job was GW Bushwhacked.  But as I catch up, my care is shifting to preventive and maintenance care.<\/font><\/p>\n

Few things are more frustrating than needing medical care and being unable to get it.  I have been there and know what it is to decide between medicine and food.<\/font><\/p>\n

For most uninsured Americans, Obamacare will provide the same security that Medicare provides me.  Republicans want to take this away to provide more welfare for the rich.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although it is soon to change, if the ACA survives, Oregon, one of the first states to provide health insurance to poor adults, can extend their unusual health care plan to all.  Now, there are insufficient resources to cover everyone.  After determining the resources available, Oregon calculates how many people they can cover under the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-politics","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}