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9 Conn. L. Rev. 450 (1976-1977)
Public Regulation of Private Supplements to Medicare and Medicaid in Oregon

handle is hein.journals/conlr9 and id is 460 raw text is: PUBLIC REGULATION OF PRIVATE SUPPLEMENTS TO MEDICARE AND MEDICAID IN OREGON by Ron Wyden* The rise of consumer power, while transforming political life in many states, has largely bypassed the elderly, one of America's most vulnerable and exploited consumer groups. Even in Oregon, whose citizens have shown great enthusiasm for innovative legislation in many fields,1 entrenched business groups and state agencies refused, until recently, to recognize the special problems of the elderly. The difficulties of the elderly have been particularly acute in the field of health insurance.2 Older consumers, ill informed about medicare and medicaid often make poor decisions about private supplemental in- surance. Many insurance salesmen take unfair advantage. Yet the Oregon Insurance Department failed to act. But in 1976 a coalition of senior citizens' rights activists con- fronted Oregon's insurance commissioner. After a state-wide publicity campaign, the coalition secured the adoption of administrative rules which require insurance agents to distribute forms outlining medi- care-medicaid benefits to prospective purchasers of supplemental policies. The senior citizen husbanding a fixed income no longer has * J. D. University of Oregon School of Law; Member Iowa State Bar, Ron Wyden is now the Legal Services Developer for the Elderly for the State of Oregon. Title III of the Older Americans Act provides federal funds for this position, which involves statewide coordination of public legal services for the elderly. Title III, Older Ameri- cans Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3001-3055 (Supp. 1975). 1. Oregon has traditionally been regarded as a state receptive to political change. M. BARONE, D. MATTHEWS, G. UJIFUSA, THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 706-08 (1975). The Oregon legislature has passed innovative laws dealing with subjects such as land use planning (see, e.g., Fuller, Oregon's New State Land Use Planning Act-Two Views, 54 ORE. L. REV. 203 (1974); Symposium: Land Use Planning in Washington and Oregon, 10 WILLAMETTE L.J. 320 (1974)), nondisposable bottles (see Note, The Oregon Bottle Bill, 54 ORE. L. REV. 175 (1974)), and aerosol sprays (see Kadera, Oregon Asks Nationwide Ban on Aerosol Sprays, The Oregonian, Dec. 24, 1975, at A9, col. 3 (Port- land, Oregon); Straub Signs Bill Banning Cans Using Fluorocarbon Propellant, The Oregonian, June 17, 1975, at A16, col. 6 (Portland, Oregon). 2. The Oregon insurance industry has been described as slow to take the reform spirit. See generally M. DOTTEN, OREGON HEALTH INSURANCE POLICIES: SOME FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (1973) (available from the Consumer Research Center, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon). 450

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