PORTLAND, Ore. — Starting July 1, thousands of Oregonians will now be eligible for Oregon's new health care plan at no cost. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) said it's expanding Medicaid coverage with the OHP Bridge health plan.
"The bridge health plan is the next step along the path to ensuring that every Oregonian has access to high-quality affordable upstream health care," said Oregon Senator Elizabeth Steiner. "To both prevent diseases and manage diseases so people can live as healthy life as possible."
Steiner co-chaired the Bridge Health Plan task force. The health plan will cover adults up to age 65 who don’t have access to affordable health insurance but are within 138 to 200% of the poverty level.
"We know that the people in this income range are the ones who are the most likely to turn on and off of the Oregon health plan, of our traditional Medicaid plan," said Steiner.
Other requirements include having eligible citizenship or immigration status, and having income above traditional OHP Plus poverty limits. Below is a graphic that looks at different household sizes in compare to qualified annual income:
The state said it created this new plan after finding that adults with incomes just above the OHP limits were more likely to be uninsured than other groups before the pandemic and would typically delay health care due to cost.
Now, OHP Bridge hopes to eventually cover about 100,000 people by 2027.
"OHP Bridge will cover medical, dental and behavioral healthcare and members will also have access to additional benefits," said Sejal Hathi, Oregon Health Authority director.
This will come at no cost to eligible individuals, meaning no monthly premiums, no cost to see a doctor, and no co-pays or deductibles for covered services.
"And were we to have either or both of those, we would have actually see a decrease in access to care which is counterproductive for the goals of the state," Steiner said.
Oregon will now be the third state in the U.S., alongside New York and Minnesota, to expand Medicaid to people beyond the traditional federal income limits. But Oregon will be the first state to offer that coverage for free.
KGW was told people who are found eligible for OHP Bridge before July 15 will have benefits as early as Aug. 1.