Opinion
A4
Thursday, February 3, 2022
OUR VIEW
Oregon’s
single-payer
plan won’t
cover this type
of care
W
hen you hear that Oregon might move
to a single-payer, state-run health plan,
you may think: Yes!
Every Oregonian would get health care cov-
erage and the same level of coverage. Equity and
quality might go up. Overall costs may be held
down. You would pay taxes instead of health care
premiums.
That’s the kind of plan the state’s Joint Task
Force on Universal Health Care is supposed to
develop. It met again Thursday, Jan. 27, taking
another step toward its goal of submitting a
Health Care for All Oregon Plan to the Legisla-
ture by September 2022.
Is Oregon going to make such a momentous
shift in health care? Should skeptical Oregonians,
health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and
others be nervous?
We can’t answer that. We are just going to slice
off one piece of this issue. That’s a form of care
that the plan won’t cover: long-term services and
supports.
Long-term services and supports encompasses
medical and nonmedical care provided to people
who are not able to do things for themselves, such
as cook, dress, bathe or make it to the bathroom.
The harsh reality is that while people can need
that at any stage of life, Medicare and most health
insurance do not pay for it. People need to “spend
down” their assets to where they have very little
left and keep their assets low to be eligible for
government assistance. Buying additional insur-
ance can help.
That harsh reality would continue under an
Oregon single-payer plan, at least as the task
force discussed on Jan. 27. They even deleted lan-
guage from their proposed recommendation to
the Legislature that highlighted the issue. Struck
from the recommendation was this sentence:
“Oregonians who are not eligible for LTSS ben-
efi ts will continue to ‘spend down’ assets before
becoming eligible.”
Task force members weren’t trying to hide
what they were doing. It is just not something
Oregon’s single-payer plan would do. It’s a state
of aff airs in health care that isn’t going to change.
No state that has been developing a sin-
gle-payer plan has found a simple way to cover
long-term services. They have all struggled with
it, as Oregon’s task force is. If the government
started paying for that type of long-term care, it
would increase health care costs substantially for
any new health system because substantial parts
of it aren’t covered now.
It might be that an Oregon single-payer plan
would cover long-term services and supports at
some point in the future. For now it’s important
to note that a type of care that many Oregonians
may need at some point in their lives would not
be covered by the Health Care for All Oregon
Plan.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of The Observer editorial board.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions
of the authors and not necessarily that of The Observer.
Demand that Idaho Power stop
bullying local landowners
JIM
KREIDER
OTHER VIEWS
I
daho Power, an out-of-state
regulated energy monopoly,
is attempting to build a 300-
mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line
through fi ve Eastern Oregon coun-
ties. It is called the Boardman to
Hemingway (B2H) transmission
line, an unneeded and destructive
project that threatens our land and
heritage.
Idaho Power has started taking
landowners to circuit court to gain
access to their land for precon-
struction surveys. This is for pre-
condemnation proceedings (aka
eminent domain) — for a trans-
mission line that has not been
approved.
The B2H application is still
under consideration; more specif-
ically, it is in a contested case that
needs to be resolved before fi nal
consideration and decisions are
made by the Oregon Department
of Energy’s Energy Facility Siting
Council. This is not expected until
summer or later this year. There
could even be more court chal-
lenges before a fi nal decision is
made.
Obviously, Idaho Power’s pre-
condemnation process is prema-
ture. It ignores the established state
process for conducting precon-
struction surveys.
The ODOE process allows for
“over-the-fence” surveys should the
landowner choose not to allow util-
ities’ agents on their property. The
“Please speak out. Contact your elected offi cials and
demand that Idaho Power stop bullying and harassing
landowners.”
— Jim Kreider, co-chair of the Stop B2H Board of Directors
Stop B2H Coalition has communi-
cated with ODOE to learn the rel-
evant regulations regarding access
to private property. Idaho Power
and its attorneys chose to bypass
the established ODOE processes
and are taking private landowners
to court using methods that are
inconsistent with ODOE’s proposed
order.
To date, at least 21 landowners
have or will be served a petition
for precondemnation entry on
their property. Eventually, there
will be more. How can we sit back
and watch this invasion of pri-
vate property and potential land
taking happen to our neighbors and
friends?
Idaho Power has the fi nancial
resources to bully people, to pub-
lish slick materials to convince
Oregonians that the B2H is a done
deal, to make grandiose prom-
ises of tax revenues to counties, to
employ attorneys and engineers to
twist words and counter everything
that people, including our local
scientists, raise. They relentlessly
“greenwash” the project, which is
not green at all.
The B2H application should be
suspended until Idaho Power ceases
its precondemnation court proceed-
ings and follows the procedures
in the proposed order. Condem-
nation or precondemnation should
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not occur until a site certifi cate is
issued, which gives permission to
build the line. At that point, if that
happens, there is an established
process for condemnation or emi-
nent domain that Idaho Power will
need to follow.
Please speak out. Contact your
elected offi cials and demand that
Idaho Power stop bullying and
harassing landowners. We sent this
letter to elected offi cials, citing the
rules: https://bit.ly/legis-ltr. Idaho
Power has a bad reputation. This
has been clear since they built
the Hells Canyon Dam complex
without the promised fi sh ladders,
and it has resurfaced and inten-
sifi ed with the B2H transmission
line.
Stop B2H Coalition is made up
of passionate people from all walks
of life and politics. We have joined
forces and commented on every
step in the decision making and
permitting processes (federal and
state) since 2007 as individuals and
2016 as a coalition. We have been
steadfast and professional in our
well-researched fi lings against the
B2H documenting countless errors
and outdated studies in their appli-
cation and analyses.
———
Jim Kreider is the co-chair of
the Stop B2H Board of Directors.
Kreider is a resident of La Grande.
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