Hot topic brings out small crowd
By Gail Kimberling of the News-Times
March 23, 2007

At least four proposals for revamping the state's troubled health care delivery system have been introduced before the 2007 Oregon Legislature, and the co-author of one plan presented details to a sparsely-attended gathering in Lincoln City on Friday, March 16.

The audience included several senior citizens, a couple of business people, several representatives of a health care workers union, and Rep. Jean Cowan (D-Newport) who introduced Sen. Ben Westlund, a fellow Democrat from Bend.

Westlund explained the basic tenants of his "Hope for a Healthy Oregon" plan are threefold: to lower costs, improve quality, and provide 100-percent access to health care to every Oregonian.

The current system, Westlund said, "is about to implode (and) only the wealthiest and the most poor will be covered."

The Lincoln City Community Center event was part of a month-long, 17-stop information tour being conducted by Westlund and Dr. Alan Bates, a Southern Oregon physician and current Senate Majority Whip. As co-chairs of the Senate Special Committee on Health Care Reform, Westlund and Bates led the effort in the legislative interim to develop "Hope for A Healthy Oregon," introduced as Senate Bill 321.

Also on the legislative docket is the "Archimedes" plan proposed by former Governor John Kitzhaber (SB 27) along with plans from the Governor Ted Kulongoski's Oregon Health Policy Commission (House Bill 3368) and the Oregon Business Coalition.

Noting there were more similarities than differences among the four proposals, Westlund said, "All of the plans have been well thought out to address a crisis of enormous ethical and economical proportions."

And the crux of the crisis, he said, is a national and state system that costs the most but produces some of the lowest outcomes - "and this with the best hospitals and doctors in the world."

Westlund went on to say health care expenses have risen 73 percent since 2000, and an estimated one in six Oregonians are uninsured. Of the 613,000 residents who lacked health care coverage in 2005 (the latest figures available), 113,000 were children; three-fourths of the uninsured were from working families.

"We need to emphasize preventative care," Westlund said, adding it was time "for comprehensive reform, not small steps."

Hope for a Healthy Oregon proposes the establishment of an Oregon Health Trust, whose responsibility will be to provide all Oregonians have health care and to oversee the health care industry to help control costs and ensure an essential benefits package. A combination of public funds, employer contributions, employee and individual contributions and federal matching funds would be used to create the Oregon Health Fund - and from that fund eligible Oregonians would receive a health card to purchase essential services from their chosen provider through an accountable health plan that meets standards set by the Oregon Health Trust.

The trust, "the heart of the plan," would be charged with: emphasizing preventative care; simplifying paperwork and billing systems; establishing fair and faster reimbursement systems, especially for primary care physicians; administering an advanced directive registry; facilitating the use of electronic medical records; and ensuring unnecessary duplication of services by issuing certificates of need.

"The basic premise is we all share the cost responsibility," Westlund said. And while many of the health insurance providers will be known companies, Westlund noted "they will be held to higher standards and compete for your business."

Saying, "It took us 50 years to get here ... we won't get out of this overnight," Westlund was reluctant to predict if parts or all of the senate proposal stood a chance of passing this legislative session. But he feels both lawmakers and members of the health care industry are moving in the right direction with the four reform proposals. In fact, talk of combining the proposals has been taking place in the legislature all this week.

Meanwhile, Bates and Westlund have continued their health care road show in the Willamette Valley and down the coast; tonight (Friday) and Saturday the tour will be in southern Oregon, and the meetings conclude with a final event Tuesday in Gresham.

With the exception of Lincoln City, where there was less than a dozen citizens present, the tour has attracted crowds of up to 80 or more people, according to Westlund's aid, Stacey Dycus.

"It's a good conversation," Dycus said, "and by the end of this session (the tour) will help to define it better, and help us figure things out. It's been really interesting."

Hope for a Healthy Oregon: the facts

Under this plan, every Oregonian

€ Will be guaranteed, affordable health care;

€ May keep coverage even if they change or lose a job;

€ May choose their own health care provider;

€ Will have no exclusions for pre-existing conditions; and

€ Will know up front the cost of all services.

For more information, go to www.HopeForAHealthyOregon.com