The House and Senate Committees on Health Care and veterans affairs will hold a work session on Monday night to consider House Bill 2009. This omnibus bill will establish a Health Care Authority that will have jurisdiction over dozens of aspects of health care regulation in Oregon. Some of the key provisions of the plan include:

• Establishes cost controls to ensure that increases in health care costs in Oregon are limited to the Consumer Price Index for medical care, minus 1 percent.
• The purchasing of individual and small business health care plans shall be purchased through an exchange administered by the agency.
• Does not allow insurance to be denied on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

The plan will extend an increase a current hospital provider tax to raise $634 million in the next biennium in order to exand coverage to 80,000 uninsured children and 75,000 adults. This increase in revenue will trigger $1.1 billion in matching federal funds for health coverage.