Oregon universal health care board punts single-payer report over funding uncertainty

Even with the extra time, none of the board’s nine members expressed confidence the report would answer the perplexing question of how to finance a state-based, single-payer health care system. Uncertainty over finances helped sink efforts to enact single-payer health care in Vermont and California. “Health care is a human right,” he said. “We don’t have the weapons to fight the 30-second sound bite,” said Chunhuei Chi, Oregon State University health care finance scholar and board member. The most recent figures presented to the board show that a single-payer plan in Oregon would have a 3% administrative cost.