President George W. Bush would be impressed with the lockstep loyalty commanded by law firm Ater Wynne for its public leader and gubernatorial candidate, Ron Saxton. This blind obeisance begs the question: Are Ater Wynne's clients also required to swear allegiance to the archaic health care policy advocated by Ron Saxton that is obediently embraced by Saxton's lawyer colleagues at Ater Wynne?

Not long ago the upper echelon of Oregon's professional campaign managers, from both sides of the aisle, appeared before the Portland City Club and unanimously agreed that health care would be the most important issue in the upcoming governor's race. Ron Saxton, a partner in the Ater Wynne law firm, refuted this prediction by indicating that health care is NOT a major issue much less the major issue. Solving Oregon's health care crisis is so low on Ron Saxton's agenda that it isn't even on it. There are more lawyers, 38, in Saxton's office then words, 35, on his website that mention health care. Here they are.

"Businesses that offer health care to their employees will be offered greater tax deductions, and I will promote health savings accounts as alternatives for individual workers and small businesses in an effort to control costs."

So the question arises, do Ron Saxton's fellow workers at Ater Wynne, who presumably all endorse his candidacy, support his position on health care? Let's find out what they should be willing to tell their friends, their families, their legal brethren and, most importantly, their clients.

Below are 6 questions put to the 37 lawyers who work on the same legal team as gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton in the Portland office of Ater Wynne. As you know, it is my practice to use both direct responses and available public evidence as a  method of presenting the truth of a matter to my readers. As always, you are encouraged to contact those mentioned to discuss and confirm their responses.

Our state is in a moral and economic health care crisis as evidenced by the facts that:
1. Huge numbers of Oregonians have no health insurance.
2. Huge numbers of Oregonians pay for such costly health insurance that they can afford little or no actual health care.
3. All of Oregon's public institutions are facing skyrocketing and unstoppable increases in health care costs which significantly diminish the quality and quantity of services that need to be provided to the public.

The federal government and the private health insurance industry have failed to provide affordable health care to Oregonians and Oregon's public institutions.

1. Do you agree or disagree that our state is in a moral and economic health care crisis, (see specifics above) which must be solved by our state government?
37 of 37 - 100% Disagree
[Apparently a law degree does not guarantee the ability to see the forest or the trees.]

2. Do you agree or disagree that Ron Saxton has offered a health care solution to our state's moral and economic health care crisis (see specifics above)?
37 of 37 - 100% Agree
[37 legal minds - 35 words. Wouldn't you love to hear their arguments in court?]

The solution to these problems is the Oregon Community Health Care Bill because it:
1. Is the most market driven health care plan in America.
2. Removes the burden from businesses of providing health care and places it on the state of Oregon.
3. Reduces health care costs to public institutions in Oregon by 20%.
4. Provides actual health care not just health insurance.
5. Eliminates the term, "preexisting condition." If the procedure is covered you're covered.
6. Provides affordable health care - on a sliding scale according to income - as good as that received by any public employee in Oregon to anyone willing to make a commitment to Oregon for one year as a registered voter.

3. Do you support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill?
37 of 37 - 100% No
[It's unlikely any of them bothered to read it. No surprises here.]

4. If you agree that our state is in a moral and economic health care crisis which must be solved by our state government and you do not support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill then what solution do you propose?
37 of 37 - 100% Don't see a problem that needs a solution.

5. Do you agree or disagree with Ron Saxton's view that when Oregonians and Oregon's public institutions can not afford health care private charity not government should be responsible?
37 of 37 - 100% Agree
[Religious institutions throughout Oregon will surely be interested to know that all the legal minds at Ater Wynne believe that non-profit entities with a mission to do "good works' including the Red Cross, the Girl Scouts, their client the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane Co et al. should shoulder the burden of providing health care for those Oregonians and Oregon's public institutions that cannot afford it.

Perhaps under the wise and creative counsel of their righteous leader, Ron Saxton, these 37 lawyers are considering the creation of the Ater Wynne Chaitable Trust which, every Sunday afternoon, would dispense through high windows in their corporate offices, charitable manna to those sick and needy petitioners below. The men could throw quarters and the women, given gender credit for greater compassion, could throw Susan B. Anthony dollars amongst the clamoring crowd. Can you imagine how satisfyingly charitable that would feel? Before you know it every lawyer in town will be tossing coins amidst the great unwashed.

Imagine the public accolades heaped upon good governor Saxton for declaring special Health Holidays so that charitable men and women of the law could be joined in their corporate towers by intelligently designed men and women of science who would toss sample packets of aspirin, ibuprofen and words of good health from on high to those suffering in pain down below.] 

"HSAs, health savings accounts, offer a lot of money to the most well-off among our fellow citizens without increasing health coverage. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, argues that HSAs would lead to a net increase in the number of uninsured.

Elisabeth Bumiller pointed out in the New York Times, a $5,000 contribution to an HSA would have saved a couple with two children and a combined income of $40,000 just $630 on their 2005 federal income taxes. (And that assumes the couple could have afforded to put away the whole five grand, which is unlikely.) But a comparable couple with an income of $120,000 [as many if not all of the lawyers at Ater Wynne enjoy] would have saved $1,500.
In other words, HSAs give the smallest benefits to those least able to afford health insurance."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021601554.html

6. Do you agree that health savings accounts, as recently explained by president Bush and endorsed by Ron Saxton, are NOT, as widely analyzed in the press, primarily a benefit to the rich that can already afford health care but rather a solution to Oregon's health care crisis as mentioned above?
37 of 37 - 100% Agree
[The voice of a compassionate God that guides our president on health care issues also whispers in the ear of Ron Saxton. I'd certainly want to hire lawyers with the Almighty on their side and astute enough to see that federal health savings accounts are the solution to providing affordable health care to Oregonians and Oregon's public institutions, wouldn't you?]

So, those of you who may chose to do business with Ater Wynne such as:
• Azumano Travel Services
• Columbia River People's Utility District (Columbia County, Oregon)
• Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon
• Hewlett Packard
• Klamath Tribes, The
• Navajo Nation
• Northwest Natural
• Oregon Children's Foundation
• Pendleton Grain Growers
• Powell’s Books, Inc.
• Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians
• St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Inc.
and many others, see list - http://www.aterwynne.com/representative/index.html , should keep in mind the kind of people you are dealing with, see list - http://www.aterwynne.com/attorneys/index.html , and what public policies your money may be supporting before you sign over your retainer check.


Richard Ellmyer
Oregon Community Health Care Bill author and project champion
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses.
Writer/Publisher - Oregon Health Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 6000 readers interested in public health care policy in Oregon.
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/health.html
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/octoberpoll.html
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/candidates.html