Two lawmakers unite to find health solution

Peter Wong
March 19, 2007

To the many audiences hearing them this month across the state, Democratic Sens. Alan Bates of Ashland and Ben Westlund of Tumalo might come across as the odd couple of Oregon's latest effort at overhauling health care.

Bates is the serious one; Westlund the funny one.

Their partnership was forged not only by their membership on a House committee on the Oregon Health Plan in 2003 -- Westlund, then a Republican, was its chairman -- but memorable events triggered by Westlund's persistent cough, which Bates, a physician, couldn't overlook.

Westlund underwent surgery for a tumor, was diagnosed with lung cancer and had chemotherapy for months afterward. He has been cancer-free ever since.

Now as the leaders of a special Senate committee, they have a plan to pool several major sources of money, which would pay for a package of essential benefits that every Oregonian would have access to. Businesses and individuals could choose to buy additional coverage.

Under their framework, which would take two to four years to implement, people still could choose their own doctors through health plans that offered standard benefits, they would continue to be insured from job to job and pre-existing medical conditions would be covered.

Theirs is not the only plan -- others are offered by former Gov. John Kitzhaber, the Oregon Health Policy Commission and the Oregon Business Council -- but they all have similarities.

"They all aim at the same place," Westlund said. "Incremental change isn't going to do it. Fundamental change in the system is necessary to solve the crisis in health care."

There are three major problems, according to those seeking solutions:

- The growing number of Oregonians without coverage: one in six, the highest in more than a decade.
- Cost increases exceeding 10 percent annually.
- And money being spent on services other than primary and preventive care.

"The first thing we must do is lower costs," Westlund said. "We are already spending enough money in the system. We do not need any more money. We need to allocate it better."

Among other things, he said, it means more for alcohol and drug treatment, more for mental health and less for high-technology care.

Bates, one of the original members of the state panel that set priorities for medical services and treatments for the Oregon Health Plan, said it also means providing coverage with basic services to everyone.

He told about a Medford woman who faces the sale of her house to cover the costs of treatment for cervical cancer, which he said could have been detected early with a Pap smear and removed through simple surgery that would have been far cheaper to her -- and everybody else.

"These stories are repeated over and over," he said. "We haven't gotten everybody under the tent."

Still, Westlund said, "universal coverage" should not be interpreted as a willingness to pay for everything medical science can offer.

"As a nation, someday we will have to answer the question: What can we afford to pay?" he said.