HCAO recommends

Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying and How We Must Replace It

by John Geyman

published by Common Courage Press

Order it here or ask your public library to order a copy

John Geyman is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA. He has spent 25 years in academic family medicine. He is Past President of Physicians for National Health Insurance, PNHP, and author of The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy?, Falling Through the Safety Net: Americans Without Health Insurance and Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare

Health Care for ALL – Oregon (HCAO) is working for secure, affordable health care for each and every Oregonian. We believe the best way to do this is through a universal, single-payer health care system for every resident of the state (and nation). With everyone in the same insurance pool, we can lower costs while providing more comprehensive services than what most residents receive now.

Top Ten Enemies of Single Payer? Click here to see who one activist thinks they are. You may be surprised.

HCAO is tweeting! Twitter: hca_oregon

Click here to join HCAO's discussion email list, delivered as a daily digest.

Corvallis: Monday, July 13, 7:00 p.m., Central Park: Sing Out! for Single Payer Road Show. A free concert featuring Anne Feeney, Raina Rose, Chris Chandler, Paul Benoit, Jason Luckett, David Rovics, Green Mountain Grass, Patrick Dodds, and Citizens Band. Bring chairs and blankets. Click here for information on other concerts by the Single Payer Road Show. More info on the Corvallis show: phochfeld@msn.com

Eugene: Monthly joint meeting of the local chapters of Health Care For All Oregon and the Archimedes Movement. Weds., July 1, 6:30-8 p.m. EWEB Community Room
500 E. 4th Ave., Eugene
 
*  Comparison of key Congressional health care positions
*  Update on Oregon health care legislation
*  Review Kitzhaber & Archimedes strategy on health care
 
For info:  Charlotte 953-0148

Health Care Reform Update

Congressional committees have begun debating health care reform. Congressional leaders and the president have said that they want to see legislation passed this year. But will it represent meaningful reform?

We already know that single payer is not a realistic option. President Obama is speaking out to persuade Congress to retain the public option in competition with private insurance. This is a good time to call your congressmen and senators and tell them you support the public option and want them to do the same.

Three single-payer bills have been referred to comittee; they are unlikely to emerge:

-- HR 676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers, who has introduced a similar bill for several years, each of which has died in committee.

-- HR 1200, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott, who has also introduced his bill each year for several years, only to see it die in committee.

-- S703, introduced March 26 by Senator Bernie Sanders. .

From HCAO chair

We are in a unique but closing window of opportunity to achieve reform of health care at the federal level. However, the health care industry is working overtime to keep real reform from happening—and it won’t happen, unless YOU make your voice heard NOW.

Health care reform in Oregon

The Oregon Legislature has passed two health care bills. HB 2116 will cover 95% of Oregon’s uninsured children and extend coverage to an additional 35,000 low-income adults. The funding plan has two components: an increased hospital tax and a 1 percent tax on the commercial insurance premiums collected by health plans and insurers.

The hospital tax will fund the addition of approximately 35,000 adults to the Oregon Health Plan in the 2009-2011 biennium. In the 2011-2013 biennium that number will grow to 60,000. The insurers’ tax will fund medical coverage for 80,000 additional children by the end of the 2009-2011 biennium. The new state funds will allow Oregon to draw down nearly $2 billion in federal funds for reimbursements to Medicaid providers, which will also increase under the funding plan.

HB 2009 replaces the current fragmented health care delivery system with a coordinated, streamlined approach, the Oregon Health Policy Board.

This Board will oversee all health care functions, the implementation of expanded coverage, and institute reforms to contain skyrocketing costs. Reform measures include facilitating the adoption of electronic health records that will position the state to compete for millions of dollars Federal stimulus funding.

We need to keep a drumbeat on calls for health care reform and how the system fails us. Tell YOUR story in a letter to the editor and your representatives!

While your active participation in health care reform is critical, you can also support comprehensive health care reform by making a contribution to HCAO. Your donations pay for copying, renting meeting halls, and other expenses needed to carry on the volunteer, grassroots organizing critical to creating the broad movement needed for comprehensive change.

HCAO volunteers organize forums, support groups of physicians seeking comprehensive reform, participate in We Can Do Better (Archimedes Movement) activities, make presentations to civic and faith groups, organize testimony on Oregon health care reform legislation, coordinate letter-writing campaigns, etc. HCAO works in a leadership role and in a unified front for reform advocacy.

Through HCAO, your contributions have helped financially support organizations that HCAO collaborates with, including the Universal Health Care Action Network, Physicians for a National Health Program, Oregon Health Action Campaign, the Archimedes Movement and HealthCare Now!

Donors of $50 and over to HCAO will receive a DVD of Corvallis E.R. doctor Paul Hochfeld’s great film “Health, Money and Fear”; OR the 2008 book Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying, and How We Must Replace It, by the Northwest’s own Dr. John Geyman.

Thank you for all you do.

Mark Lindgren

Chair, HCAO

Volunteers take to the streets calling for Health Care For All!

We are a statewide, grassroots organization with local Community

Leadership Teams in Albany/Corvallis and Lane County We are looking for volunteers in other parts of the state to start chapters in their area.

Regular meetings

Eugene: Lane County Chapter of HCAO sponsors monthly meetings with the Eugene - Springfield Chapter of We Can Do Better (John Kitzhaber's Archimedes Movement) every First Wednesday of the month from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM at Eugene Water and Electric Board, in North Building (left of the fountain at the river bike path) in Community Room (follow signs). For more information: Charlotte (953-0148)

Albany/Corvallis: Mid Valley Health Care Advocates meet monthly

7 p.m., last Thursday of the month, Corvallis

Caring Place, 750 NW 23rd, Corvallis

for more information: Mike Huntington (541-745-5635).

People interested in getting involved in the Corvallis area can contact:

Joe and Lois Marie Zaerr, House Meeting Coordinators: If you want to host a house meeting to inform your friends and neighbors about health reform activities.

During 2002 we collected around 100,000 signatures to place a pioneering ballot initiative on the November 2002 ballot. However, the thousands of hours of volunteer labor could not counteract the the $1.3 million spent on television ads and direct mail by insurance and hospital holding companies.

The drive to achieve secure and affordable health care for every Oregonian has just begun.

Copyright © 2002, 2005 Health Care for ALL – Oregon, Inc., All Rights Reserved