Most Oregonians say they have delayed health care or gone without it during the last year because of cost.

People cut pills in half or went without prescriptions. They skipped needed dental care. They delayed going to the doctor. They skipped or delayed even longer.

More than 40% of Oregonians say they have struggled to pay medical bills and have spent their savings, borrowed, skipped meals or heat.

The Oregon Health Policy Board wants to do something about it. It wants to center the state’s conversation on health care on affordability and consumers.

The board oversees the Oregon Health Authority, guiding the state’s health care policy.

So what it does could have some weight.

There are already many discussions in Oregon about the affordability of health care. There are talks about universal health care. There is a board dedicated to the affordability of prescription drugs. The state has been working on targets and penalties for growth in health care costs.

The plan is an effort could strongly focus on the consumer, to elevate the issue of overall affordability.

The Oregon Health Policy Board has a committee that provided guidance on the state’s cost growth targets. Affordability, though, is a broader issue than any state cost growth target. And members of the board see a need to start taking more action now. The new committee may be launched in April, because, in part, it will take time to recruit people to serve on it.

“There’s real urgency and in some ways, this is too slow,” said Bill Kramer, a member of the Oregon Health Policy Board and the executive director for health policy at Pacific Business Group on Health. Those statistics who were not able to afford health care “are real people.”

The new affordability committee may produce a report, recommendations, letters to elected officials and more. But unless legislators and the governor are also invested in the effort and committed to improving health care affordability, this effort would be more exercise than change.