In the late 1980s, former Gov. John Kitzhaber was a chief architect of the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s reformulation of Medicaid. In 2012, he was the driving force behind another huge transformation: the creation of coordinated care organizations or CCOs, which became the way low-income Oregonians get their health care.
Kitzhaber has been out of office for 10 years now, but he has been paying a lot of attention in recent weeks to Congress, where Republicans are looking to trim upwards of $800 billion from Medicaid over the next ten years.
Kitzhaber spoke with OPB’s “Think Out Loud” about what Medicaid cuts or reform could look like for Oregon and the nation. Excerpts, edited for length and clarity, are below.
What an ideal health care system should look like
“The objective of the health care system ought to be health, right? And I think that, primarily, we view it as something to fund and deliver medical care, right? I think most of us would probably agree that we want a health care system that’s affordable, accessible and that actually improves health outcomes when people need it…