Recently, a series of seemingly unrelated events within Oregon’s healthcare system, are beginning to reinforce one another, at a time when all financing segments—Medicare, Medicaid and commercial payers—are already under stress. These are not, in fact, isolated and disconnected events. Rather, they reflect the convergence of multiple factors, all driven by the unsustainable increase in the total cost of medical care, and are moving us relentlessly toward a cascading market event.
