The nine-person Universal Health Plan Governance Board seeks to establish, starting in 2032, medical, vision, dental, and mental health benefits for every state resident from cradle to grave — with no premiums, deductibles, or copayments.
This absolutely, positively will not work as envisioned or intended. Health care is not an unlimited resource. There are only so many doctors, for example, so “with no premiums, deductibles, or copayments” there’s nothing to stop the flood of people who will use, overuse, or abuse the system. Wait times for service will soar (as they have in virtually every nation with socialized medicine).
Lawmakers could vote on a plan during the 2027 legislative session or refer it to voters as a ballot measure in 2028. If approved, the state would be the first in the U.S. to implement what’s called a single-payer health coverage system. It could serve as a model for other states — and potentially the nation.
Or it will be a cautionary tale.
Surveys show patients often delay care due to out-of-pocket costs. And medical debt remains a leading cause of bankruptcy in the nation.
Some delay is okay. Health care has to rationed in some respect because it’s not unlimited.
Medical debt is a problem that could be solved through catastrophic healthcare insurance, except that the Affordable Care Act explicitly bans it.
States have often served as laboratories to test health policies later implemented nationally. The Affordable Care Act was modeled after Massachusetts’ attempt to achieve universal health insurance coverage, once single-payer efforts there stalled. And Canada’s universal healthcare system began with a provincial plan in Saskatchewan.
It is clear now that the Affordable Care Act, while well intentioned, has not worked and needs significant reform. And I would never, ever hold Canada’s medical system up as a standard to which any nation should aspire.
States that took the issue directly to voters have fared no better. Ballot measures in Colorado in 2016, Oregon in 2002, and California in 1994 all failed by large margins.
Let’s hope that Oregon does this again.