legislative updates

Gelser Forges Path Forward for Free Prenatal Care for Diabetic Women

The House Health Committee unanimously approved HB 2432, requiring insurers to cover the costs that diabetic women accrue when pregnant without deductibles and copays, despite opposition by Regence BlueCross BlueShield. Rep. Sara Gelser was able to lower the fiscal impact to the Oregon Educators Benefit Board after talks with ODS
April 9, 2013 — Oregon women who get pregnant and struggle with low blood sugar may no longer struggle to seek extra prenatal care relating to diabetes after the House Health Committee voted 8-0 on Monday to require insures to cover diabetic prenatal care at no extra cost. Read More >>

Bill Would Ban Pop and Junk Food in Public Vending Machines

House Bill 3403 is opposed by a group of blind vendors who testified that their businesses would suffer a 50 percent cut in sales if they’re only allowed to offer healthy food products they frequently throw away after nobody buys them
April 9, 2013 — If you want to buy a Coke or a Snickers bar from a state Capitol vending machine, you’d better get yours while you can. Read More >>

Latino Health Coalition Wants Traditional Health Worker Commission

The commission would have a majority membership of health workers to set standards for these workers who are touted as a key part of Oregon’s healthcare delivery transformation
  April 8, 2013 -- A patient came into a Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Clinic with diabetes, but try as the doctor might, the patient would not take the insulin that she was prescribed.
 
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House Passes Bill Allowing County Cigarette Taxes

Rep. Mitch Greenlick tells The Lund Report he would like the threat of county-by-county taxes to be used as leverage for a statewide cigarette tax increase, which would still assist county health departments.
April 5, 2013 — Oregon counties are one step closer to adopting their own cigarette taxes, after the House voted 31-29 to remove a statute from state law that precludes any entity but the state from taxing tobacco. Read More >>

Cultural Competency Training Compromise Likely to Become Law

Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer forged a bill to allow cultural competency as part of education requirements of the state medical boards, earning the support of both the Urban League and Republicans.
April 5, 2013 — Oregon took a step toward acknowledging its increasing racial diversity when the House Health Committee passed a cultural competency bill for medical professionals that heads to the House floor next week. Read More >>

Tanning Lobby Wins Concessions on Teen Tan Ban

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, favors limiting the ban to 17, over the objections of the Knight Cancer Institute that 17-year-olds are most at-risk of developing melanoma from tanning beds
  April 5, 2013 -- The tanning lobby won a major concession today in the Senate Health Committee, which voted to scale back a ban on carcinogenic tanning beds for minors.
 
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Health Committee Approves Bill to Offset 2014 Premium Hikes

A closed-door task force crafted HB 3458, the Oregon Reinsurance Program, after a consultant reported insurance premiums on the individual market would climb 38% next year. The program assesses insurers $4 per policy per month, a decline from current state assessments.
  April 4, 2013 — The House Health Committee has unanimously passed major reinsurance legislation, designed to offset the spike in premium rates next year when insurers are required to accept thousands of sick people who had previously been denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
 
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Oregon House Votes to Include Insurers in Consumer Fraud Act

Sen. Chip Shields told The Lund Report he expects the Senate to pass the measure, which would remove the unique exception insurance companies such as Regence BlueCross BlueShield have from the Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
April 3, 2013 — Seven years ago, Regence BlueCross BlueShield blithely declared that Azusa Suzuki was dead and refused to honor a supplemental insurance claim after she was injured in a car accident. Read More >>

Planned Parenthood Wants Pregnancy Centers to Display Their Services

Similar measures to require anti-abortion counseling centers to display signs have run afoul of the First Amendment and have been struck down by federal courts. SB 490 would require centers to display signs that they have no medical staff and do not offer prenatal care, contraceptives or abortions.
  April 3, 2013 — Planned Parenthood is pushing Senate Bill 490, which would require crisis pregnancy centers to declare upfront in signs whether they offer abortion, contraceptive or adoption services and if patients will receive services from a medical provider.
 
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House Bill 3000 Requires Children to Have Eyes Checked for School

Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, offers emotional testimony recounting how his mother was told he was stupid because he couldn’t read by third grade when he just needed glasses
  April 1, 2013 — Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, as the co-chairman of the Joint Ways & Means Committee, presides over much of the budget and has to be well-versed on statistics and figures.
 
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