Health care plan shows promise
At last, a comprehensive approach to a solution

OPINION
March 22, 2007

Ask a dozen people what to do about the health care system and you'll get at least that many answers. But everyone will agree on one thing: The system we have now is broken.

Groups of lawmakers and others in Oregon have been working for months on a plan to begin fixing the system, at least in this state. Their efforts have yielded several proposals, and lawmakers are working now to combine them into one bill. In the meantime, Sens. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, and Ben Westlund, D-Bend, are holding town hall meetings around the state to discuss the plan with the public.

Southern Oregon meetings will be at noon Friday in Grants Pass, at 7 p.m. Friday in Ashland and at 10 a.m. Saturday in Medford. Anyone who is concerned about health care and health insurance should be there.

Bates and Westlund, co-chairmen of the Senate Special Committee on Health Reform, are carrying on the work of a special Senate commission that met for a year to examine Oregon's health-care system and recommend changes.

The result is a plan that would pool money from employers, individuals and the state and federal governments in order to provide every Oregonian with health insurance. Health insurance companies would provide the policies, under guidelines developed by a state board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

No tax increase would be necessary, because the system would combine money already being spent on health care and achieve savings by reducing administrative costs and increasing efficiency.

Many, many details of this plan remain to be worked out. The legislation now being developed would create the state board and set it to work designing the system. When lawmakers return to Salem next year for their experimental short annual session, work toward launching the new system would begin in earnest, with state health coverage cards issued to Oregonians as soon as 2009.

What is especially encouraging about this effort is that the Senate commission, former Gov. John Kitzhaber's Archimedes Movement and the Oregon Business Association, working independently, came up with remarkably similar approaches to reforming the system.

Another important point is that this is not "socialized medicine." The state would neither pay for health care nor provide coverage, except to the extent it already does by subsidizing coverage for the poor. Government's role would be limited to defining what constitutes basic coverage, setting reimbursement rates and controlling costs.

As the plan takes shape over the next year, the details will undoubtedly generate vigorous debate from everyone with a stake in the outcome. That is not a bad thing; it is a debate that is long everdue.

A group of concerned community leaders representing local employers, health-care providers and social service advocates visited the Mail Tribune Editorial Board this week to urge our support for a solution. Harry and David CEO Bill Williams, building contractor Russ Batzer and administrators from La Clinica del Valle and the Addictions Recovery Center agreed that the system has become too costly and keeps too many Oregonians from getting the health care they need.

You can find more information about the plan at www.hopeforahealthyoregon.com, including details of the town hall meetings.

Every Oregonian has a vital interest in solving the health care dilemma. This effort is the most promising to come along yet, but it will take hard work to see it through.