Oregon Public Broadcasting

The state is scheduled to hold a lottery Monday to provide 8,000 low-income Oregonians with health care.

When former governor John Kitzhaber first started the Oregon Health Plan in 1994 about 100,000 people enrolled. It was an expansion of coverage beyond regular Medicaid recipients.

But the recession of the early 2000's decimated the Oregon Health Plan, leaving just a couple of thousand people with coverage.

Now, Lynn Read with the Department of Human Services, says federal stimulus money, state support, and taxes from hospitals and insurance companies, mean thousands are being added again -- by lottery.

Lynn Read: "We've drawn in October, January, February and March, and now we're doing an April drawing."

Read says the Oregon Health Plan provides a bridge to 2014. That's when low-income people without insurance will be able to join the newly passed federal healthcare program.