Oregon’s Universal Health Plan
This page is frequently updated, so check back for more information in the coming weeks.
Links to the Universal Health Plan Governance Board (UHPGB) information:
2026 Meetings page LINK HERE
• use the + symbols to “open” meeting dates to see other details
• “Register to attend” link is on each date’s row
Submit Public Comment LINK HERE
• Written comment due 72 hours in advance (e.g. for a Thursday 9am meeting, written comments due Monday 9am)
• Verbal comment sign-up register within 24 hours in advance of meeting. You get 2 minutes. Should address a topic they will be voting on.
A random “Public Comments” page LINK HERE to give you an idea of what written comments look like
Full text of the flyer:
“Oregon’s Health Care Crisis: How Did We Get Here?”
Health insurance is ridiculously expensive. Care is costly, hard to find, and sub-par. Even proponents of a Universal Health Plan (UHP) agree our current system is unsustainable. Our current government says a UHP will fix these problems.
But it’s not an accident that we’re at this point; our government has created the conditions for the problems they now want to fix with a UHP. Here’s how:
STEP 1: 2011-12 HB3650 and SB1580 create Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) running physical, mental, and dental care on global government budgets.
STEP 2: MONOPOLY CCOs get regional monopoly power, exempted from antitrust law.
STEP 3: POOLED $$ Billions in pooled funds move through nonprofits, with little public tracking of where it goes.
STEP 4: COSTS RISE Normal market checks are removed, costs climb, and taxpayers are asked for more.
STEP 5: EXPAND Eligibility widens, bureaucracy grows, and care standards are lowered.
STEP 6: OVERPAY Drug prices overpaid, alternatives sidelined, and the “health care” umbrella expands to pay for even more (like housing and climate change).
STEP 7: 2022 Measure 111 declares health care a “constitutional right” for all Oregonians, regardless of citizenship. (Aside: can it morally be a “right” if it requires the labor of another person?)
STEP 8: 2023 Having established health care as a constitutional right, SB1089 creates a 9-member, governor-appointed board, to create a plan to implement a Universal Health Plan.
STEP 9: 2027 Market conditions (see previous steps) cause all but 4 insurers to leave Oregon. By comparison, in 2014, we had 16 insurers in the individual and small business market.
STEP 10: 2027 LEGISLATIVE SESSION: FINISH IT The board will present their plan to the legislators and governor. Depending on who is sitting in these positions, and what kind of resistance we create, it will likely pass.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
• Vote for legislators who will STOP this plan.
• Contact the UHP Governance Board and your current legislators to voice your opposition to this plan.
• Join the OFMF Mailing List for updated info and calls to action.
CREDIT: Thanks to Mark Anderson, I Spy Radio, and Lisa Lettenmaier for compiling and presenting this information. Listen (or read the transcript at the bottom of the page) and view citations here:
https://ispyradio.com/oregon-universal-health-plan-single-payer-taxes.html
Click the image below to download “Oregon’s Health Care Crisis: How Did We Get Here?” flyer:
Oregon’s Health Care Crisis: How we got Here