Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
April 4, 2014 OHA Director's messages on the web
To: All OHA employees
From: Tina Edlund, Acting Director
Making a healthier Oregon one person at a time
“I am just so happy now … I am tickled to death to have health insurance.” ~Kayanna Clock, new OHP client

Oregonians have until Wednesday, April 30, to apply for private health care coverage through Cover Oregon. If you know anyone who has been waiting to apply, please urge them not to wait. They can work with a community partner or agent, or apply on their own with an online form. If they have any questions, they can go to Cover Oregon and see a video about how the application process works.

Although the application period for private coverage ends this month, Oregon Health Plan enrollment stays open all year long. So far this year, there are more than 260,000 enrollments and more people sign up every day.

One of the newly enrolled people is Kayanna Clock, who just three months ago was one of the estimated 560,000 Oregonians who had been living without health insurance. The 62-year-old has Type 2 diabetes and had been without health care coverage for four years.

Kayanna and her husband, Howard, are both retired and living in Coos Bay on a fixed income. Howard is eligible for Medicare, but last year, the couple made just a little bit too much for Kayanna to qualify for the Oregon Health Plan. She also had a pre-existing condition (her diabetes), so no private insurance was within her price range.

“Before, I couldn’t afford to pay the insurance premiums,” Kayanna said. “My (monthly) premiums went from $320 to $400 in one year, and I was told to expect the cost to keep rising. So I had to drop it, it was just too expensive. I worried about something major happening. It could have ruined us financially.”

She now has health insurance coverage for her visits to her patient-centered primary care home and all other needs. 

“I am just so happy now. Plus, I can take advantage of prevention measures. I am tickled to death to have health insurance,” she said.

Kayanna is just one example of the hundreds of thousands of Oregonians whose lives have been touched by the important work that we do at the Oregon Health Authority. Together, we will carry on our important work to improve the lives of Oregonians, one person at a time.

OHA on the web