The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Arne Landsberg of Corvallis listens as Tom Jovick, Manager of Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, speaks at the 2009 OMIP Town Hall in the First Interstate Bank Room in LaSells Stewart Center Wednesday evening.

Many Oregonians are unaware of the alternative health insurance options that are available to them, such as the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, whose representatives spoke at LaSells Stewart Center Wednesday evening to provide information in a pricey health market.

"We are a safety net," said presenter and manager Tom Jovick. "It is for those who wanted to buy commercial insurance, but were turned down."

Approximately 15,000 people are covered by OMIP, but the costs of covering that number of people is expected to increase, Jovick said.

"We spent $180 million on 15,000 people, and with inflation and cost rises, we will spend $420 million."

This could mean that a cap would be put on enrollment, and Oregonians would once again find themselves paying out of pocket for their medical costs.

"To get vaccinated, I had to pay $300 out of pocket," said attendee and Linn County resident James Rodell.

A cost shift occurs when extra costs incurred by an insurance company are passed on to those they cover. Fifty percent of those covered by OMIP are being subsidized by those who have group or employment health insurance that results in a cost shift, according to www.oregon.gov/DCBS/OMIP.

"It is the nature of health insurance," said Jovick. "The healthy people are subsidizing the sick."

Jovick credited the increase in cost to what he called a two-part medical trend.

"There is an increase in the manufacturing cost … and an increase in utilization, which is picked up by tax payers in a 'cost shift,'" he said.

"The only way you get rid of the cost shift is universal coverage," Jovick said. Though that may be the ultimate solution, preventative coverage is what is mainly stressed, as it eliminates one of the factors of higher health care costs.

"The only way this health care is going to work is if people get proactive," Rodell said.

Devonne Wallace, staff writer

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231

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