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The Oregon Story
Health Care Rationing: A Case Study
What Happened in Oregon?
A process: Oregon Health Decisions
A specific policy outcome: Medicaid rationing program
Oregon Health Decisions
Inaugurated in late 1970’s“Town meetings” to discuss health care
prioritiesStatewide assembly with representatives
from town meetings to draft state health care “constitution”
Statements of desired health care priorities
Oregon Health Decisions-- II
Led to highly educated voters who understood health issues
Led to elected officials not afraid to say the “R-word”
Oregon Medicaid Rationing
Begun in 1980’s but could not get Federal waiver to implement until 1993
“Ration care not people”
Medicaid in Other 49 States
“Poorest poor”-- all care covered
Other poor--no carecovered
Medicaid in Oregon
All poor covered by program
Not allcareis coveredby program
Argument for Inequality
Ideally would ration care for all citizens of Oregon under uniform statewide plan
However current reality is that only Medicaid program is under state control
Makes sense to improve the justice of Medicaid by covering all poor citizens, even if system as a whole is not perfectly just
How to Decide?
Developed list of about 700 disease/treatment pairs Intravenous antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia Surgery for coronary heart disease Liver transplant for end-stage cirrhosis etc.
How to Decide?-- II
Complex multi-stage process of rank-ordering pairs based on: Likelihood of benefit Cost Frequency of problem Value judgments on resulting quality of
life
How to Decide?-- III
Rank-ordered list sent to legislatureLegislature could appropriate money for
Medicaid but could not change ranking of items
Amount of money appropriated would set a cut-off point, below which care would not be funded by Medicaid
572573574575576577578579580581
Covered
Not covered
Moral Claim
Oregon Medicaid covers all poor peopleOregon Medicaid covers a reasonable
package of care which includes the most effective and the most costworthy treatments for the most common health problems
Some pressure placed on state to improve overall Medicaid funding
Assess the overall level of justice or injustice represented by the Oregon Medicaid rationing plan.
Menzel’s Argument
The fact that the program rations care for the poor but not for the rich does not by itself make the plan unethical
Arguments for egalitarianism in medical spending are weak
Poor would rationally choose to spend less of their limited resources on health
Menzel’s Argument-- II
Hypothetical Case: Rationing for all Oregonians Plan funds treatments up to #578 Insurance rider can be purchased which covers
treatments #579 and up Cost of rider:
• To rich-- $1000 annually
• To poor-- $200 annually
Menzel’s Argument-- III
Rich person probably has $1000 left over after paying for all necessities of life; may readily decide to buy rider
Poor person may still lack some basic necessities of life and would prefer to spend $200 on some of them, not on rider
If so, not unfair to poor to deny them treatments #579 and higher
Menzel’s Argument-- IV
Even if ethics does not demand egalitarian spending for rich and poor, it does demand fair representation
Oregon plan may be flawed if poor were under-represented when key decisions made