OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
SaTuRday, May 28, 2022
Oregonians may face sticker shock when buying health insurance
By LYNNE TERRY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — More than 300,000
Oregonians who buy health insur-
ance for themselves or through a
small group plan are likely to see
a spike in premiums next year.
The health insurance com-
panies that offer plans on the
individual marketplace and
those that offer group plans are
seeking average rate increases
approaching 7%, according to the
state Department of Consumer
and Business Services, which reg-
ulates health insurers.
In the individual market, the
requested rate increases for 2023
range from 2.3% to 12.6%, with
a weighted average increase of
6.7%, the department said. That
means a 40-year-old with a mid-
range plan could pay as much
as $507 a month if the rates are
approved.
In the small group market, the
nine companies offering plans
asked for increases from 0% to
11.6%, or as much as $446 a month
for premiums, the department said.
department of Consumer and Business Services/Contributed Photo
Katie Button of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, right, helps a
consumer pick a health care plan on the federal online marketplace.
In comparison, the cost of
plans in effect this year barely
budged from 2021, going up by a
weighted average of about 1.5% in
the individual and group markets.
The insurers said inflation, a
rise in medical costs and changes
in enrollment necessitated the
increases, according to the depart-
ment. Health care costs in the
United States, which spends a
larger share of its gross domestic
product on health care than any
other industrialized country, rose
nearly 5% in 2019, nearly 10% in
2020 and nearly 7% last year.
The state is trying to curb
increases and has a goal of a
yearly rise up to 3.4%. That
ceiling is in effect for Medicaid
and state-paid health insurance
plans, but it is not mandatory for
commercial insurers.
The department has two
months to review and approve
rates for 2023. The public will be
able to comment online later this
month about them.
The public comment period
starts later this month and runs to
July 7 online. There will be public
hearings online on July 27 and 28.
Go to oregonhealthrates.org for
information.
Besides potential rate hikes,
consumers will be hit with lower
subsidies: Boosted subsidies from
the federal government in place
for 2021 and this year will end
at the beginning of 2023. They
have cut premiums by an average
of 46%. That enabled people
who earned between $13,590 and
$27,180 a year to buy a low-end
plan for $1 a month.
The department said it could
be worse. Without the state’s rein-
surance plan, which uses federal
money to reduce premium costs,
the rates would increase another
6%. Insurance Commissioner
Andrew Stolfi said the program
has kept premiums reasonable and
given Oregonians choice.
“Oregon continues to have a
strong and competitive insurance
marketplace, with four carriers
offering plans statewide and Ore-
gonians in most (of) our coun-
ties having five or six companies
to choose from,” Stolfi said in a
statement.
Stolfi encouraged consumers to
comment on the plans and prices
and participate in virtual hear-
ings on July 27 and 28. During
the hearings, each insurer will
give a presentation about its rate
requests, answer questions from
the department and listen to the
public.
“We look forward to a thor-
ough public review of these fil-
ings as we work to establish next
year’s health insurance rates,”
Stolfi said.
The department will make a
preliminary rate decision in early
July, with a final decision in early
August.
Top corrections leaders offer unflattering take on governor, lawmakers
By NOELLE CROMBIE
The Oregonian
SALEM — When
leaders of the Oregon
Department of Correc-
tions met last fall with a
$325-an-hour consultant to
plan the agency’s future,
they rattled off challenges
they faced.
Among them: a “dys-
functional” governor’s
office and Legislature.
Their take on state law-
makers was particularly
blunt: “Uninformed but
believe they are informed.”
The withering assess-
ments were included in a
25-page internal document
prepared by the consul-
tant and obtained by The
Oregonian/OregonLive.
It was Colette S. Peters,
the longtime correc-
tions head, who offered
the unflattering assess-
ment of Gov. Kate Brown’s
Kathy aney/East Oregonian, File
Colette S. Peters, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections,
speaks to a gathering of EOCI employees and members of the public
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, at the prison’s new wellness facility. Peters
offered an unflattering assessment of Gov. Kate Brown’s office
during an Oregon Department of Corrections meeting, according
to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the gathering. Peters
answers to Brown as a department director.
office during the meeting
and documented in the
report, according to mul-
tiple sources with direct
knowledge of the gathering.
Peters answers to Brown as
a department director.
The perception of law-
makers as uninformed
came from several people in
the room, said the sources,
who were not authorized
to speak pub-
licly about the
meeting.
Rep.
Janelle
Bynum,
D-Happy
Brown
Valley, who
this year
pressed Peters in a hearing
on the department’s disci-
pline of a prisoner, called
the criticism “unfair.”
“I think most legisla-
tors would say we all want
to be informed,” she said.
“I think the general feeling
is we can’t possibly be
informed coming from our
individual communities as
agencies probably want us
to be or think we should be.
It’s a citizen legislature.”
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner
Hayward, D-Beaverton,
said her fellow lawmakers
work hard.
“Do we know every in
and out of the Department
of Correc-
tions? Prob-
ably not,” she
said. “But I
think people
are acting in
good faith.”
Bynum
A spokes-
person for
Brown did not respond
to a request for comment
Wednesday, May 25.
Shifting focus
The document reflects an
agency grappling with its role
amid shifting societal pri-
orities regarding crime and
punishment and a national
focus on racial disparities
embedded in the American
criminal justice system.
The meeting, facilitated
by Beth Doolittle, who
works as an organizational
consultant, was intended
to help the agency plan
its long-range future. The
agency released its contract
with Doolittle in response
to a public records request.
It shows the agency agreed
to pay her up to $150,000
for consulting services.
During the meeting last
fall, agency leaders cited
multiple demographic, prac-
tical and political factors
that shape their work.
They listed the state’s
aging prison population,
”far left” and “far right”
political forces and a shift
regarding “who’s the
victim?”
“Focus has shifted to
the trauma/harm,” to the
person who is incarcerated
instead of the crime victim,
the report notes.
They also cited the
department’s shifting rela-
tionships with outside
advocacy groups urging
systemic changes within
Oregon’s prisons, such as a
reexamination of the use of
solitary confinement.
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