Oregon state officials will mail applications to another 6,000 people on the Oregon Health Plan reservation list today, allowing them to apply for the plan’s standard benefit package. The latest mailing will bring the total number of applications mailed since March to 21,000.

The standard plan provides health benefits to low-income Oregonians who do not qualify for traditional Medicaid coverage. The state does not have the budget to cover the estimated 140,000 individuals who meet eligibility requirements for the standard plan, so officials devised a lottery system to choose which 24,000 people will receive benefits.

“So far, 3,928 uninsured low-income people have been found eligible for health care coverage through this process,” state Medicaid Director Jim Edge said in a statement announcing the new round of applications. “By October, when we will mail a final round of applications, we will have sent 30,000 applications to people whose names were randomly drawn from the 91,000 names originally on the reservation list.”

To qualify for the standard plan, applicants must demonstrate three months’ consecutive income that averages less than the federal poverty level — $867 a month for an individual or $1,467 for a family of three.

— Markian Hawryluk