For a limited time, the Oregon Health Plan will accept new adult enrollments, according to a January 7th DHS news release. OHP will be enrolling approximately 5,000 people into the Standard plan in order to replace members lost by attrition and bring the total number of enrollees back up to average levels. This is the first time OHP Standard has been open since 2004, and it won’t last long–people “who believe they might qualify for OHP-Standard” may only apply for the lottery between January 28th and February 29th. After that preliminary “Yes!! I am interested in having health insurance!!!” period, DHS will select applicants from the pool at random and mail them their behemoth of an application.
To editorialize on a related topic, according to our own DHS, 67,000 Oregonian children are eligible for OHP and not enrolled. When I think about the $$$ spent on failed Measure 50, I wonder what it could have done to spread the word about existing, funded services that are not being accessed.
Update: An article in today’s Oregonian reports that significantly more applicants may be accepted than DHS’s news release suggests, due apparently to budgetary surplus caused by lower enrollment levels.