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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2015)
FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015 4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS Opinion / Local — Guest Opinion — Inflatable colon raises colon cancer awareness at Marvin’s Paying dearly for “affordable” health care By Sen. Doug Whitsett We are now more than six years into the presidency of Barack Obama. The products of his signature redistribution-of- wealth programs are becoming all too ap- parent, with devastating consequences for states like Oregon that rushed to be among the first in the nation to implement them. President Obama promoted the 2010 fed- eral Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to the public as a critically needed program to provide health care insurance to the poor. He claimed that its execution would reduce the cost of delivering medi- cal care; thereby, making it affordable for every American. So how is that working? Obama said last week that “the law is working better than we expected and actually ended up costing less than people expected.” Incredibly, he made those comments in the state of Tennessee, where three of the largest insurers are request- ing insurance premium increases next year. Those increases will be 36.3 percent for BlueCross BlueShield, 18 percent for United Healthcare and 11 percent for Cigna Humana. Community Health Alli- ance Mutual is requesting a 32.8 percent increase for one line of insurance and Time Insurance Company is requesting a 46.9 percent increase for another. This recent Associated Press article discusses the impacts of the Medicaid expansion included in the Affordable Care Act on the future budgets of several states. Kentucky, for example, revised its Med- icaid cost estimate from $33 million to $74 million for the 2017 fiscal year. That cost could climb to as high as $363 million by 2021.This more than ten-fold cost increase appears to be anything but affordable for anyone. The article also states, that starting in 2017, Oregon will have spent the nearly $2 billion it received in federal aid to serve as an Obamacare pilot program. It quotes the Senate co-chair of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee as stating that Oregon’s share of the Medicaid budget may cost an additional $500 million be- tween 2017 and 2019. That sharp cost increase has two primary causes. According to Oregon Health Au- thority officials, Medicaid enrollment has already increased by about 200,000 more than was predicted in the fall of 2014. Fur- ther, the federal government only agreed to cover the costs of the Medicaid expan- sion until 2017. The State’s share of the Medicaid budget is likely to rise from 6.2 to 10 percent by the year 2020. Decreasing the federal contribution to 90 percent will increase the Oregon contribution share by nearly two-thirds. Those escalating costs to Oregon taxpay- ers were covered in another article. Oregon officials originally estimated that 222,700 people would sign up for cover- age as part of the Medicaid expansion. The official figure is now estimated to be 386,000. Even that figure continues to escalate and may be based on the flawed 2014 estimate. A 2013 report assumed that the expan- sion would cost the state $217 million in 2017-19, substantially less than the $369 million it is now projected to cost. That change in assumptions represents a 70 per- cent cost increase. The Senate Co-chair’s estimate represents a potential 130 percent cost increase. Obamacare’s prices continue to surge elsewhere across the country. This year, health insurance premiums averaged double-digit increases. Projected cost esca- lation is even higher for next year. Nearly every state has multiple insurance plans that are requesting rate increases of 10 percent of more, according to information posted on www.healthcare.gov. For instance, premiums for Health Management Organizations (HMOs) are predicted to be 19 percent more expen- sive. The premiums for Exclusive Pro- vider Plans are expected to increase by 20 percent. The average premium in 2016, for all health insurance plans, is estimated to skyrocket by 14 percent! At least part of the enormous escala- tion in premium costs is caused by the anticipated termination of two Obamacare tax subsidies provided to health insur- ance companies. Currently, taxpayers are bearing the cost of “risk corridors” for patients who spend more on health care than providers predicted. Taxpayers are also heavily subsidizing the most costly patients through a “reinsurance” program. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, these two subsidies ar- Submitted Photo Senator Doug Whitsett represents Oregon’s senate district 28. tificially lowered Obamacare health insur- ance premiums between 10 and 15 percent last year. Consumers will be responsible for the full premiums when these two sub- sidy programs end at the end of 2016. People who are not covered through a job, a spouse or another government-fund- ed program are eligible to purchase insur- ance through an Obamacare exchange. About three-fourths of those who are eligible for the full income tax subsidy that provides essentially free health care insur- ance have enrolled in the program. How- ever, among those who are not eligible for fully tax-subsidized insurance premiums, the percentage of individuals and families participating nosedives. Sign-up for Obamacare exchanges falls to only 41 percent among those whose income is between 151 and 200 percent of the federal poverty line. Participation continues to plummet to 30 percent as earnings increase between 201 and 250 percent of the poverty level, to 20 percent for those earning between 251 and 300 percent of the poverty level, and to 16 percent for those earning more than 301 percent of the federal poverty level. People are choosing to absorb the sig- nificant tax penalties for not purchasing insurance, rather than to pay the exorbitant cost of insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. In fact, according to the federal Health and Human Services agency, only about one-third of the eligible people are currently participating. In short, those who allegedly cannot afford health insurance are receiving free coverage, while most of the rest are going without insurance, because they cannot afford the premiums. Moreover, the Obamacare model is based on an incorrect assumption of monumental proportions. It assumes that younger people will pay more for health insurance premiums in order to subsidize older people who generally use more medical care. But the fastest growing seg- ment of Obamacare enrollees is the lower- income younger generation. Instead of paying in an excess of funding, that cohort is taking money out of the system by ac- cessing essentially free medical insurance. The scheme is fiscally unsustainable. Obama took office just as the deep economic recession was officially ending. According to the Congressional Budget Office, since that time our nation is expe- riencing the slowest economic recovery in more than a century. In my opinion, Obama’s vigorous anti-capitalism and redistribution of wealth polices have been a major factor in curtailing the recovery in the United States. In contrast, during the same period, the global spread of free-market capitalism has lifted tens of millions of families out of poverty in other nations. Obamacare is at the heart of his anti- capitalism agenda. It is designed to na- tionalize more than 40 percent of our free market economy by ultimately creating a single-pay medical care system funded by American taxpayers. The sad truth is, his agenda is working. Its provisions are forcing the rapid consolidation of health care insurers and providers into mega-corporations willing and able to bend to federal decrees. Subse- quent steps will include folding the entire health insurance sector under the control of federal agencies, as he has already ac- complished with student loans and with home mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The final step will be to complete the unionization of the entire medical care provider workforce. In the end, the federal government will have total control of the 40 percent of our economy that is cur- rently providing health care, as well as employing that entire workforce as public employees who are required to belong to public employee unions. To me, the message is clear! A free society owes every citizen the chance to work, to compete, to innovate and the opportunity to succeed. The Obama administration’s redistribution of wealth earned by others, ultimately, benefits no one. Please remember, if we do not stand up for rural Oregon no one will. Submitted Photo. Something one doesn’t see everyday: Scott Maliwauki, Justin Scott, Shasta Scott, Chanc Carpenter, and Wendy Johnson take a walk inside the big inflat- able colon. St. Luke’s Hospital’s Mt. States Tumor Institute and the Marvin Wood Products Shape-up Com- mittee brought something bigger than life to Marvin’s on July 1st—an inflatable colon! Now this might sound like something full of hot air, but the truth is only 59 percent of the Oregon residents who should be screened actually are. Marvin’s Shape-up Com- mittee, a team of five employees, gives monthly presentations to promote and improve health aware- ness with employees. Dawn Callaham, MSTI Community Cancer Educa- tion Coordinator and Lori Steele, Nurse Navigator gave a short presenta- tion on colorectal cancer, followed by an employee walk through the inflatable colon. Marvin employees saw how normal colon tissue progresses to polyps and becomes advanced colon cancer which could be pre- vented through detection during a colonoscopy and a simple procedure. At Marvin Wood Prod- ucts employees receive a reduction in medical insurance rates if they participate in advanced screenings including being screened for colon cancer when they turn 50 years of age. There are other op- tions for screening, but a colonoscopy is, in reality one of the best tools avail- able to detect cancer in the colon. Colon cancers can begin as noncancerous polyps in the lining of the large intestine. Detecting polyps and removing them pre- vents them from becoming malignant tumors. — Letters to the Editor — Never voting for Walden again running staff thru his La Grande office that has no clue as to what’s going on, and we keep having to start from scratch because of Greg’s poor leadership. The man is so spineless, so useless, that he can’t even hold one simple agency like the US Forest Service accountable, or find out what they are planning for the people of Eastern Oregon’s access to their mountains. It’s either that, or he’s actually helping them through assisting in the stall- ing or releasing the information. I am done! And I hope you will be, too. John George Bates Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker County Press reserves the right not to pub- lish letters containing factual falsehoods or incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or detracting from specific for-profit business- es may not be published. Word limit is 375 words per letter. Letters are limited to one every other week per author. Letters should be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty- Press.com. Advertising and Opinion Page Dis- claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest Opinions or Letters to the Editor express the opinions of their authors, and have not been authored by and are not necessarily the opinions of The Baker County Press, any of our staff, management, independent contractors or affiliates. Advertisements placed by political groups, candidates, businesses, etc., are printed as a paid service, which does not constitute an endorsement of or fulfillment obligation by this newspaper for the products or services advertised. To the Editor: I personally will never vote for Greg Walden again, ever! He refuse to act and keeps moving staff in and out of his La Grande office that will not act upon the Forest Service to enact change on the planning process that targets to restrict and remove our motorized access from our mountains. If you vote for the man you are openly supporting your restriction and closure from the mountains and I would hope you would share this with everyone from Joseph to Medford. I’ve made this public for a reason, share it wide and share it far. The man keeps — Contact Us — The Baker County Press PO Box 567 Baker City, Ore. 97814 Open Monday-Thursday for calls 9 AM - 4 PM Open 24/7 for emails Office location: TBA Phone: 541.519.0572 TheBakerCountyPress.com Kerry McQuisten, Publisher Editor@TheBakerCountyPress.com Wendee Morrissey, Advertising and Sales Wendee@TheBakerCountyPress.com David Conn, Advertising and Sales David@TheBakerCountyPress.com Published weekly every Friday. Subscription rates per year are $29.95 all areas, e-mail delivery. $39.95 print issue, home delivery, Baker City city limits only. $49.95 print issue, mail delivery, outside Baker City city limits only. Payment in advance. A division of Black Lyon Publishing, LLC Copyright © 2014 YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS President Barack Obama 202.456.1414 202.456.2461 fax Whitehouse.gov/contact US Sen. Jeff Merkley 503.326.3386 503.326.2900 fax Merkley.Senate.gov US Sen. Ron Wyden 541.962.7691 Wyden.Senate.gov US Rep. Greg Walden 541.624.2400 541.624.2402 fax Walden.House.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 503.378.3111 Governor.Oregon.gov State Rep. Cliff Bentz 503.986.1460 State Sen. Ted Ferrioli 541.490.6528 Baker County Commissioners Bill Harvey; Mark Bennett; Tim Kerns 541.523.8200 541.523.8201
