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.
Since then, our volunteers have been working on health care reform at both the federal and the state level. Our focus has always been single payer, but we’re also working on other solutions as a way of getting there. The effective lobbying of our volunteers helped get a public option included in Oregon’s HB 2009, and HCAO recommended local advocates for the Oregon Health Policy Board. We drafted minimum standards for the proposed Oregon Insurance Exchange and the public option. We work regularly with other Oregon and national advocates on federal and state health reform.
Since summer, we’ve been holding forums, helped organize Anne Feeney’s “Sing Out for Single Payer! Tour”, and joined nationwide network Faithful Reform in honoring the 45,000 persons who die each year due to lack of access to health care (one each day in Oregon). We arranged the send-off of the Mad as Hell Doctors from Corvallis and welcomed them home after they got great press coverage in 26 cities along the way to their Washington D.C. rally (see their videos at www.madashelldoctors.com). We collected signatures at local events urging congressmen to support single payer and organized supporters to send post cards to congressional representatives urging them to support single payer bills in the House and Senate. At this critical time, we are redoubling our efforts on the behalf of all Oregonians. With your help, we can fix our broken system.
Without our voices, the insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies will keep winning, and continue to reap massive profits while working families and small businesses continue to get hammered by rising health care costs.