STATE
6A — THE OBSERVER
SaTuRday, MaRcH 20, 2021
Oregon Senate votes to make health care a right
Resolution would ask voters to decide
whether affordable health care is a
fundamental human right
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — The Oregon
Senate on Thursday,
March 18, approved a res-
olution that would ask
voters to decide whether
the state is obligated to
ensure every resident has
access to affordable health
care as a fundamental
human right.
The resolution, whose
aim is to amend the state
Constitution, was approved
along party lines, with
Democratic senators in
favor and Republicans
opposed. It next goes to
the House in the Demo-
crat-controlled Legislature.
A similar effort in 2018
was approved by the House
but it died in committee
in the Senate. If it had
been put on the ballot and
approved by voters, it would
have been the first con-
stitutional amendment in
any state to create a funda-
mental right to healthcare.
“Every Oregonian
deserves access to cost-ef-
fective and clinically appro-
priate health care,” said
Senate Majority Leader
Rob Wagner. “Oregon’s
Constitution should reflect
that truth.”
If the House passes the
bill, voters would be asked
to consider amending
the state’s 162-year-old
Constitution.
Republicans said any
promise to ensure all Ore-
gonians are entitled to
health care lacks financial
backing.
“The bill doesn’t fund
any system to deliver on
that promise,” Senate
Republican Leader Fred
Girod said. “If Democrats
are serious about giving
Oregonians free health care,
they should come up with
an actual plan.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
a Life Flight Network air ambulance lands May 1, 2020, at St. anthony Hospital, Pendleton. The Oregon Senate
on Thursday, March 18, approved a resolution that would ask voters to decide whether the state is obligated to
ensure every resident has access to affordable health care as a fundamental human right.
The resolution says the
state’s obligation must be
balanced against funding
public schools and other
essential public services.
Senate Republi-
cans claimed in a state-
ment that the League of
Women Voters of Oregon
navirus pandemic persists,
“will be pivotal for national
and state health care
reforms,” League Presi-
dent Rebecca Gladstone
and healthcare specialist
Bill Walsh wrote. “It’s time
to continue to do our part
in this effort by involving
has opposed this measure
“because of its obscurity.”
But in a Feb. 15 letter,
the League of Women
Voters of Oregon said it
supports the resolution,
and called it “simply an
aspirational bill.”
This year, as the coro-
voters in the process.”
Asked to explain
why Senate Republicans
claimed the League has
opposed the resolution,
caucus spokesman Dru
Draper pointed out that the
League had opposed it in
2018.
A League president —
Gladstone’s predecessor —
had sent a letter in oppo-
sition in 2018, saying the
state couldn’t afford “the
added cost of health care
coverage for all its resi-
dents at this time.”
But Gladstone said
things are different this
time.
“We are pleased to see
provisions added to this
2021 bill that will balance
health care with the pub-
lic’s interest in funding
schools and other essen-
tial public services,” Glad-
stone said in an email late
March 18. “This seems to
be a direct response to the
League’s work on the 2018
bill, when we advocated
for provisions that would
protect funding of these
essential services.”
Oregon to pay expanded jobless benefits ‘without delay for most people’
By MIKE ROGOWAY
Oregonian/OregonLive
SALEM — The Oregon
Employment Department
said Wednesday, March 16,
that most people receiving
expanded benefits through
the new coronavirus relief
package won’t experience
any delay in payments as
those programs kick in.
Payments will con-
tinue “without delay for
most people,” said David
Gerstenfeld, the depart-
ment’s acting director. That
includes most contract
workers receiving bene-
fits through the Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance
program and extended ben-
efits through the Pandemic
Emergency Unemployment
Compensation program.
However, Gerstenfeld
warned that some people
who had used up all their
benefits under those pro-
grams before Congress
extended them last week
may have payments inter-
rupted while the employ-
ment department adapts its
computers to the federal
changes.
“It will take some addi-
tional time there,” Ger-
stenfeld said on his weekly
media call.
Oregon has paid $8.1 bil-
lion in jobless benefits since
the coronavirus pandemic
began a year ago, though
many unemployed people
have had to wait weeks or
months for their money.
The $1.9 trillion coro-
navirus relief bill President
Joe Biden signed last week
extended temporary pro-
grams Congress established
in March 2020 at the pan-
demic’s outset. Gersten-
feld said those extensions
require time to implement
on the department’s obso-
lete computer system, so
people who didn’t have ben-
efits remaining before the
program will have to wait
an indefinite period for the
computers to be updated
before getting their money.
Oregon is in the process
of replacing its computers,
which date to the 1990s.
That project has been stalled
several times of the past 12
years, but Gerstenfeld said
the department is within a
“couple of weeks” of final-
izing contract language with
a vendor chosen last year to
do the work.
The state hopes the
project, which could cost
$123 million, will be com-
plete in 2025.
In the meantime, thou-
sands of Oregonians are
still working to resolve
outstanding claims. The
department’s phone lines
remain jammed with calls
from people seeking infor-
mation about the complex
system of jobless bene-
fits. Instead of calling, the
department recommends
trying its online form.
State news briefs
Brown urges program to insure
remaining Oregon adults
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown has called on law-
makers to extend health
insurance coverage to the
estimated 6% of Oregon
adults who still do not have
it.
The Democratic chief
executive testified Tuesday,
March 16, for House Bill
2164 in the House Health
Care Committee. Her pro-
posed budget contains
$10 million to cover 2,000
adults.
Oregon estimates that
94% of adults and all chil-
dren have coverage under
federal, state or private
insurance.
“The pandemic has
taught us this is not good
enough,” Brown said in her
testimony. “And unfortu-
nately, our communities of
color have paid the price.
Gaps in coverage persist,
and these gaps are dispro-
portionately borne by com-
munities of color.
“Everyone deserves
access to health care. It’s
the right thing to do, the
just thing to do. And it’s
smart economic policy.”
The bill would autho-
rize the Oregon Health
Authority to create a Cover
All People program, mod-
eled on the Oregon Health
Plan, which as of March 8
covered 1.27 million people.
It emerged from the health
equity committee of the
governor’s Racial Justice
Council.
The new program would
cover legal permanent res-
idents, young adults who
age out of Oregon’s Cover
All Kids program, DACA
recipients (young people
brought illegally to the
United States as children)
who have deferrals from
deportation, and undocu-
mented adults.
Brown said the new pro-
gram is not just socially
responsible but makes eco-
nomic sense.
“Across agriculture,
manufacturing, the ser-
vice sector and our health
care system, front-line
workers from our immi-
grant and refugee commu-
nities have gone to work
every day during the pan-
demic to very literally keep
our society going. Many of
them worked through wild-
fires and breathed harmful
smoke,” she said.
“The very least we can
do in a just society,” Brown
added, “is to make sure
they have access to this
basic human right.”
Survey: Pessimism pours like rain in Oregon
By ZANE SPARLING
Oregon Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — A
growing share of Orego-
nians think the state is
headed down the wrong
track, if not at risk of
derailing completely,
according to polling data
from the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center.
Some 44% of residents
are pessimistic about Ore-
gon’s future, while 35%
are optimistic and the
remaining 21% are unsure.
Those results show a flip-
flop from summer 2020,
when 43% believed the state
was headed in the right
direction.
“As a whole, the gov-
ernment is infuriating,”
Melissa Aspell, one of the
poll’s respondents, said in a
phone interview. “There’s a
lot of frustration with how
Gov. (Kate) Brown runs
things. And then clean up
Portland, for God’s sake!”
Aspell, 39, of Bend, said
she was concerned about
the overgrowth of “cook-
ie-cutter homes” in her
neighborhood and the mis-
allocation of government
resources, but noted that
local parks are well main-
tained and she has been
able to receive a COVID-19
vaccination.
Roughly 600 Orego-
nians, who are part of a
professionally maintained
polling group, participated
in the online survey in Jan-
uary, with participants
selected to correspond with
state demographics. The
poll’s overall margin of
error is 4%.
Here are the key
findings:
• Democrats (51%) are
more positive about the
state’s near future, com-
pared with Republicans
(23%) and voters who
belong to neither party
(28%). Conversely, 66%
of Republicans had a neg-
ative view of Oregon’s
future, compared with 29%
of Democrats and 48% of
independents.
• Just 2% of poll respon-
dents rated Oregon’s
economy as excellent,
vastly outnumbered by
those who scored the state
economy as poor (31%) or
only fair (47%). Middle
income earners (83%) were
more likely to downrate the
economy than the working
class (74%).
• Nearly half of residents
(47%) predict Oregon’s
economy is getting worse,
compared to 11% who see
an upturn on the horizon
and 36% who foresee it
treading water. Women
(52%) were more likely to
predict tighter wallets than
men (43%). The most pes-
simistic age group was the
middle aged.
• A slim majority (53%)
are very or somewhat wor-
ried about their personal
finances, while 45% are
not too worried or not at all
worried. Nearly two-thirds
(63%) of those making less
than $50,000 are concerned
about the state of their
pocketbook, compared with
33% of those bringing in
more than $100,000 yearly.
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Oregon bills would
increase access to
menstrual products
SALEM — Sev-
eral bills under consid-
eration in the Oregon
Legislature would help
make menstrual products
more readily available,
including at schools and to
some people who receive
government assistance.
Senate Bills 717 and
521 and House Bill 3294
all address menstrual
products, The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported.
SB 717 would provide
$10 per month to people
who receive Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram benefits to “purchase
personal hygiene items.”
The measure has support
from the Oregon Food
Bank and Partners for a
Hunger-Free Oregon with
Matt Newell-Ching, public
policy manager for the
Oregon Food Bank, calling
the investment critical in
testimony to lawmakers.
SB 521 would exempt
businesses from paying
“commercial activity tax”
on sales of period prod-
ucts, diapers, formula
and prescription drugs.
The tax was passed in
2019 to help Oregon fund
education.
The third bill, HB
3294, would require public
schools to provide pads
and tampons to students
at no charge. That bill,
called the Menstrual Dig-
nity Act, has more than 15
sponsors.
Oregon State president
put on probation
CORVALLIS —
Oregon State’s board of
trustees have placed pres-
ident F. King Alexander
on probation for his role in
handling sexual miscon-
duct complaints while he
was at LSU.
After a seven-hour
meeting Wednesday night,
the board ordered Alex-
ander to come up with an
“action plan” to regain the
trust of his campus.
A report commissioned
by the LSU board found
there was a “serious insti-
tutional failure” in the
school’s handling of Title
IX cases during Alexan-
der’s tenure. He served
at LSU from July 2013
through 2019 and took the
same position at Oregon
State in 2020.
A number of Oregon
State faculty and students
testified in a public hearing
earlier in the day, calling
for Alexander’s firing.
The board considered
firing Alexander, USA
Today reported.
Court revives UO suit
alleging gender pay gap
EUGENE — A federal
appeals court has revived a
University of Oregon pro-
fessor’s lawsuit alleging
the university has failed
to address a “glaring” pay
gap between her and male
colleagues.
Psychology professor
Jennifer Joy Freyd argued
that the university paid
her thousands less per
year than it paid four male
professors though they
were all of equal rank and
seniority, The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported.
A three-judge panel
of the 9th U.S. Circuit of
Appeals held Monday that
a reasonable jury could
find that Freyd and her
male colleagues performed
substantially equal work
yet the men drew signifi-
cantly higher wages.
The decision reverses
a ruling in U.S. District
court and moves the case
back to the trial court.
— Associated Press