The Oregon Health Plan.

Abstract

The Oregon Health Plan is an innovative approach to providing a basic level of health care coverage for all citizens. A major component of the plan provides for prevention of illness. True, there is rationing of health care in the plan, but without such a plan the uninsured are currently limited in access to care. The plan may be flawed, but this cannot be known until it has been tried and monitored. The reality is that health care dollars are diminishing, and alternative approaches to health care are going to have to be investigated. This plan is truly a starting point for the development of a national health care policy. Let us hope that the federal government will allow Oregon to begin this bold experiment, and perhaps benefit the disenfranchised in this country.