The gubernatorial health care debates are over and there is a clear winner - Pete Sorenson.

I have read what they and others have said about their health care plans. I have watched and listened to them in public discussions and debates tell about their health care plans. I have contacted and communicated with them by email, phone and face to face. My criteria for endorsement was the same for candidates for governor as for any candidate running for school board, city council, county commission or the legislature in our state:
A. Does the candidate understand the fundamental basis for Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis?
B. Does the candidate understand the necessity for our state of Oregon to address the problems?
C. Does the candidate support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill or another bill which is on the public table that will address all of the three social conditions which constitute our health care crisis, namely:
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.

There is only one candidate that meets these criteria - Pete Sorenson.

The failure of ALL the remainder of gubernatorial candidates to even acknowledge the basic problems we Oregonians and our public institutions face is astoundingly depressing. They offer platitudes and vague fantasy solutions, never facing head on, the real health care dilemmas. If they were doctors and we were sick patients most of us would die from their "care." With the exception of Pete Sorenson who supports the Oregon Community Health Care Bill, NONE of the other candidates for governor of our state would acknowledge that our public treasuries are bleeding to death from skyrocketing and unstoppable health care costs. The Massachusetts health care plan will eventually fail, not just because in time the state will not be able to pay for it but because the Massachusetts legislature also failed to confront runaway public institutional health care costs. We Oregonians must not let our legislature make the same mistake.

The moral and economic health care crisis facing our state is the most important issue facing every candidate for every elective office in Oregon, especially those who would be governor of our state. If you want affordable health care for yourself, your family, your neighbors, your friends, your fellow Oregonians and your schools, your city, your county and other public institutions in Oregon on which you depend then you must mark or write in Pete Sorenson for governor. There is no other choice.


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 15,000 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