Oregon Public Broadcasting

Despite a massive budget deficit, legislative leaders in Salem said Friday they’re still on track to bring universal health care to Oregon for the first time.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

The health care bill is big:  256 pages long.  And that’s not all, says House Health Care Committee Chair Mitch Greenlick.

Mitch Greenlick:  “We have about 25 pages of amendments we’re working on right now.  And then we have about 63 other proposals for amendments.”

So it’s impossible to know what the health care reform bill will look like in the end.  But backers say it would pave the way to universal health care by making insurance more affordable and by enrolling more people in the Oregon Health Plan.

The expanded coverage would come courtesy of a higher tax on health care providers.

Greenlick says that state money would shake loose about a billion dollars in federal funding.

Reshaping Oregon’s health care system may be a political sticky wicket, but Greenlick promises results.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick: “We’re going to have it to the Governor by the end of April.”

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House Bill 2009