ShareOre. health bill tweaked, malpractice fight looms
Jonathan J. CooperProponents of a measure that would significantly overhaul the Oregon Health Plan worked Thursday to round up support for the plan as it appeared it may not have enough votes to pass the Senate.
A key committee was scheduled to vote on the measure Friday, potentially sending it to the full Senate next week.
But Republicans in the Senate still aren't satisfied with medical liability provisions in the bill, and they pledged a fight. One Democratic senator also said she wasn't sure if she'd support it and could become a critical swing vote.
Gov. John Kitzhaber has proposed a broad overhaul of the Oregon Health Plan, the state's Medicaid program for low-income patients, to improve coordination of care and reduce hospital stays. Proponents say the state can tamp down rising health care costs by aggressively managing care for the costliest patients, particularly people with chronic conditions and addictions.
Proponents worked to ensure support for an overhaul they call "health care transformation," saying the state budget depends on it to reduce medical costs.
"What it would do to our health care community, especially in rural Oregon, is so important that you can't throw transformation under the bus" because of medical malpractice concerns, said Sen. Alan Bates, an Ashland Democrat and family physician who has worked closely on the overhaul.
In a letter dated Monday, all 14 Republican senators and one Democrat, Betsy Johnson of Scappoose, said they would not support an overhaul bill unless it included restrictions on medical liability. Their fifteen votes are enough to deny the bill a majority in the 30-member Senate.
Late Thursday, Johnson said she was unsure whether she'd vote for it. Discussions were evolving rapidly and it was too soon to know the result, Johnson told The Associated Press.
In a late-night meeting Wednesday, a legislative subcommittee made changes to the bill intended to address concerns raised by some lawmakers and health care lobbyists.
On medical malpractice, they added a provision that would create a task force to study potential limits on liability and make recommendations to the 2013 Legislature. Republicans said that doesn't go far enough because there is no guarantee that the Legislature would ever impose liability restrictions. Kitzhaber, Bates and others involved in crafting the legislation have said they support liability limits but the issue is too complex to tackle immediately.
"We will learn nothing new in between now and 2013 that we don't already know about medical liability limits," said Sen. Ted Ferrioli, the Republican leader. All 14 Senate Republicans remain opposed, he said.
Proponents of limiting medical liability argue that it would decrease the cost of health care by lowering premiums for malpractice insurance and reducing defensive medicine. Opponents question the cost saving potential and say patients should have access to justice if they're harmed by a doctor's negligence.
At first, the proposed overhaul would impact 500,000 Oregon Health Plan patients. Kitzhaber has said he'd like it to eventually expand to also cover state and school district employees and even influence private insurance plans. Proponents hope it would be a model that other states would match to stem the rising cost of health care.