The House Health Care Committee approved to raise taxes on hospitals and health insurance companies, which would recoup more than $1 billion in Medicaid grants to extend state-supported coverage to 80,000 uninsured children and 75,000 low-income adults. The hospital insurance tax would increase from 0.63 percent to 1.5 percent of hospital’s net revenue, a lower increase from the governor’s proposed increase to 4.0 percent, according to the report.
The committee separated the tax bill from a much larger bill, which incorporates the rest of the recommendations from the Health Fund Board, that the committee cleared last week, according to the report. The policy bill proposes the formation of an Oregon Health Authority, which would oversee changes in the healthcare system and make way for changes in 2011. Lawmakers expected the policy bill to be met with more opposition than the tax bill.
In addition, a 60-cent tax raise on a pack of cigarettes, proposed by Gov. Kulongoski to raise money for the health plan, is pending in the House Revenue Committee.
Read the Statesman Journal’s report about the Oregon healthcare tax and policy bills.
