Warning lights are blinking red for Oregon’s economy. Last October, Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, placed Oregon’s economy in the bottom ten nationally and described it as either in, or at high risk of entering, a recession.
There have been significant and widely publicized layoffs by large, well-known Oregon businesses, and by many measures, Oregon’s economy is showing signs of stress.
Oregon ranks in the bottom third for business climate competitiveness according to the Tax Foundation, bottom quarter for cost of living, and has slower median income growth and GDP growth than the nation as a whole.
Oregon’s business climate declined by 11 places last year down to 39 according to CNBC’s Top States for Business Ranking.
These impacts directly affect health care providers and systems – we see more patients that do not have employer-sponsored insurance, rising levels of uncompensated care and patients presenting with increasingly complex health need.
The business climate also makes it harder to recruit doctors, nurses and professionals – particularly when a trailing spouse faces limited employment opportunities or when families have concerns about affordability, public school performance, housing availability and the overall cost of living. These factors increasingly influence where highly skilled professionals choose to live and work, placing Oregon at a competitive disadvantage when recruiting nationally or trying to retain existing talent.
Recommendations to Governor Kotek’s Prosperity Council
One group championing positive change is Oregon Business & Industry (OBI), which works tirelessly to advocate for policies to improve the overall business and economic climate in Oregon.
On April 2nd, OBI submitted a memorandum to the members of Governor Kotek’s Prosperity Council outlining recommendations for improving Oregon’s economic climate now, and for generations to come. Read the letter here.
OBI focused its recommendations around several major themes:
- Avoid laws and regulations that make Oregon a policy outlier and harm the state’s competitiveness, whether in establishing new policies or evaluating and modernizing existing ones.
- Make Oregon a more affordable place to live, work and run a business.
- Establish a culture of “yes” rather than “no,” and reduce Oregon’s overall regulatory burden while modernizing rulemaking processes and outcomes.
- Prioritize business and economic development through competitive retention, recruitment and long-term planning efforts in critical areas.
- Ensure a sustainable state budget focused on providing Oregonians with outcomes commensurate with the investments made by state government.
Within each of these major themes, OBI laid out specific, targeted policy changes that could begin moving the state in a different direction.
Asante is highly supportive of this effort – as both a major employer and the largest health care provider in the region – it is critical for our communities, employees and patients that Oregon’s economy and business climate is competitive and prospering.
We are strongly supportive of OBI’s recommendation to place a moratorium on enforcement of OHA’s Health Care Cost Growth Target program, as well as efforts to avoid additional policies that increase the cost of health insurance or care delivery.
Similarly, Oregon’s efforts to establish a unique single‑payer system would commit substantial public resources to a program that is unlikely to function within the current, national system and would require significant individual and corporate tax increases. We are concerned these impacts would further weaken Oregon’s business climate and that the funding mechanism would meet fierce opposition.
We applaud OBI’s steadfast commitment to bettering Oregon and support its recommendations. We urge the Governor to take immediate action on these recommendations.
