Oregon’s Health Co-Op asked for a 21 percent decrease to its rates, but was allowed to cut rates only about 10 percent. The Insurance Division looked to cull aggressive rate decreases with an eye toward ensuring the companies can maintain solvency. LifeWise Health Plan has the cheapest standard silver plan at $222 a month.
Some clinics have chosen to continue a focus on the uninsured -- and now serve mostly immigrants, shut out of Obamacare. Others now accept Medicaid, continuing the focus on their existing low-income patients now lucky to have coverage.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority continues to paint a misleadingly rosy picture of CCOs, giving them credit for improvements to childhood screening that are not the result of better care but better data collection.