Wednesday, October 21, 2009

New OHP Lottery



This isn't a music-related post, but something that is probably relevant to many musicians and, well, a hell of a lot of Oregonians.

When I got sick a few weeks ago and visited the Outside In clinic, I learned that the Oregon Health Plan is having another lottery to determine which low-income and uninsured Oregonians will be able to be added to the state insurance plan. (They had a similar lottery back in the winter of 2008.) They're expanding the program to 35,000 more people, but there are many, many more eligible folks than that in Oregon, so they must determine who gets insured by random drawings. And while it's a pretty fucked up world we live in where who gets healthcare is determined by chance, at least the program is expanding instead of cutting coverage.

So, if you think you might be eligible and are uninsured, you can sign up to be part of the lottery on the DHS website starting November 1st.

You can read more about the lottery here.

2 comments:

Goldie Davich said...

thank you for that info and YES it is totally relevant. good call.

Amber Dawn said...

I signed up last year and so got a reminder to sign up for this year as well. I agree that the whole lottery thing is kind of messed up, but "randomness" is more fair than a lot of other ways to choose. Of course, maybe everyone needs healthcare and should have access to it, or maybe I'm just crazy. but until then, this is a good thing to know about and promote. Thanks for sharing.