After Obamacare passed, Oregon Democrats followed suit by building their own Medicaid experiment: the CCO system.
The promise was simple: health care would become cheaper, more coordinated, and better for patients.
Years later, Oregon families, hospitals, and doctors are living with the consequences.
Instead of lowering the real cost of health care, Oregon Democrats created another layer of middlemen between the patient and the doctor. The state sends taxpayer dollars to CCOs, CCOs control the networks and payments, and hospitals and providers are left fighting for reimbursement while costs keep climbing.
Then Oregon Democrats expanded Medicaid even further, turning the health care system into a catch-all social services program. Under Oregon’s Medicaid waiver, taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits now include housing supports, nutrition supports, climate-related devices, outreach, and other “health-related social needs” benefits for certain OHP members, including people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
That means while hospitals are struggling, doctors are buried in red tape, and working families are paying higher premiums, Oregon Democrats are using the health care system to fund services that go far beyond traditional medical care.
And after all of that, who seems to come out ahead?
The CCOs.
Patients still struggle to get appointments.
Doctors still fight red tape.
Hospitals still absorb underpaid care.
Working families still pay more.
But the CCO system keeps growing, keeps controlling the money, and keeps inserting itself between the taxpayer, the patient, and the provider.
Oregon Democrats did not fix health care with CCOs. They shifted the pressure onto hospitals, doctors, employers, and working families while protecting the middlemen.
The problem is not just lack of funding.
The problem is a government-designed system that keeps growing, keeps costing more, and keeps pushing the damage downstream, while the CCOs benefit from managing the money.