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Article Excerpt
Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard
A DREADED COUNTDOWN is in its final hours for about 9,500 Lane County residents who will lose their prescription drug, mental health and other Oregon Health Plan benefits at midnight tonight.
The impending loss of coverage has therapists and doctors rushing to complete paperwork and find alternative solutions for mentally ill and drug-addicted clients. The Legislature also is working to find money to restore the cuts.
Many patients, meanwhile, are responding with a mix of fear, resignation and desperation to the specter of going without medication or counseling.
The county residents - among more than 100,000 statewide - are the latest to feel the brunt of state budget cuts tied in part to the defeat of Measure 28 in January. The March 1 cuts are part of $140 million in state Department of Human Services reductions resulting from the state's yawning budget shortfall.
Other departments also face new cuts in this round of reductions, but the lion's share of social service cuts are related to Oregon Health Plan coverage and reimbursements.
Residents on the "standard" or basic Oregon Health Plan will lose their outpatient mental health, drug and alcohol, prescription drug and dental coverage starting Saturday. They're among the so-called "working poor" who don't qualify for traditional Medicaid, but still earn less than the federal poverty level.
The end of prescription coverage is a result of voters' defeat of Measure 28, a temporary income tax increase; the other benefits already were earmarked...
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