Senate panel OKs draft of universal health care plan
Reform - The proposal would give every Oregonian access to a card that could buy complete health care coverage at a lower cost [Lower than What? The cost we pay for Ted Kulongoski's health care? And what about costs to Oregon's public institutions?]
Saturday, December 09, 2006
BILL GRAVES
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116564010495780.xml&coll=7

My Fellow Oregonians:
The term, "universal health care" has traditionally been the death knell for every health care reform plan to which it is attached. This will be no different.

There is ONLY one way to make health care affordable (not "lower cost" whatever that is) to Oregonians AND Oregon's public institutions and that is to remove the private health insurance industry as a model and player from the solution. This proposal does not do that. It must fail.

Not one candidate for the 2007 legislature presented this proposal to a single voter. It has zero public support going in.

The devil is in the details. This proposal is not yet an actual plan which can be vetted by voters, citizens and the press in a timely fashion commensurate with the enormity of the envisioned change and the timeline suggested for legislative consideration. It is dangerously incomplete and already too complicated.

Follow the money. Any proposal for a major change in the method and amount we pay for health care in Oregon MUST, MUST, MUST have the detailed financial component in place, up front and clearly understood BEFORE any other part of the proposal is placed on the table. This proposal puts the most essential element at the end of the process which will rightly provoke and engender suspicion thereby assuring failure. Remember, in the political arena - Who Pays? Who Gets? - is always the fundamental issue.

Westlund's proposal is NOT COMPETITIVE with the Oregon Community Health Care Bill which has been on the public table for two years and has been supported by candidates running for public office and some already in public office. Far more than 17,000 Oregonians are already familiar with the Oregon Community Health Care Bill and see it as the touchstone against which all other health care reform proposals will be judged.

The Oregon Community Health Care Bill:
A. Is the most market driven health care plan in America.
B. Removes the burden from businesses of providing health care and places it on the state of Oregon.
C. Reduces health care costs to public institutions in Oregon by 20%.
D. Provides actual health care not just health insurance.
E. Eliminates the term, "preexisting condition." If the procedure is covered you're covered.
F. 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.

Ben Westlund and his fellow proponents as well as the Democrats about to take control of state government have, to date, been AFRAID to face the competition of ideas presented by the Oregon Community Health Care Bill.

It is TOO LATE to bring the Westlund commission's incomplete, unvetted proposal before the legislature for serious consideration. The 2007 session should put as many health care reform proposals as there are on the table for discussion purposes only. The 2007 legislature should make recommendations at the end of the session and give every candidate for the 2009 legislature an opportunity to campaign with the health care reform package of their choosing. The class of 2009 will have the credibility to act on health care reform. The class of 2007 has no such standing.


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 17,000 readers interested in public health care policy in Oregon.
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/health.html

P.S.
If you can provide financial support to help send Richard Ellmyer occasionally or frequently to Salem to advocate for the Oregon Community Health Care Bill, watchdog the legislature's attempt at health care reform and write about the consequences of the legislature's actions or inactions with regard to health care proposals then please send me an email with your phone number and we'll talk.