...Stern backs Wyden’s health care reform bill
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JANUARY 5, 2007
SEN. RON WYDEN
W. Bush, and they each differ signifi-
cantly from the approach he favors —
a shift to tax-free individual health
savings accounts.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Legislature
may pass reforms of its own, and will
be looking at a grab bag of ideas, some
major, some minor.
The highest-profile proposal to take
concrete form thus far is the one devel-
oped by the Oregon Senate’s special
Commission on Health Care Access
and Affordability, chaired by Senators
Ben Westlund (D-Tumalo) and Dr.
Alan Bates (D-Ashland). The commis-
sion, which included representatives
from labor and business interests, met
throughout 2006 and released a draft
in early December.
“Health care is crumbling around
us,” Westlund, a former Republican and
independent-turned Democrat, told the
Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board on
Dec. 14. “Our health care system can-
not be sustained five to seven years out.
It’s collapsing in on itself.”
The Bates-Westlund proposal
would create an Oregon Health Care
Trust Fund, which would bargain with
insurers on behalf of all Oregonians.
The Trust Fund would then offer a
complete health care package to every
Oregonian who is currently uninsured
— including medical, dental, mental
if you need a stent or a new kidney,
they’ll pay for it.”
The Oregon Legislature will also
consider a grab-bag of partial reforms
intended to widen access and restrain
costs. They include:
• Expanding a state program of in-
surance for children in low-income
families, and paying for the expansion
with an increase in cigarette taxes.
Cigarette taxes would go up 84 cents
per pack, matching the level paid in
neighboring Washington; that money
would get federal matching funds.
Families earning above a certain
amount could also buy in. Gov. Ted
Kulongoski supports the plan, which
was developed by State Sen. Laurie
Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham).
• Making insurance companies
show cause before a rate review com-
mission before they could raise premi-
ums.
• Requiring hospitals to publicly
disclose their prices.
• Strengthening the requirement
that hospitals demonstrate a commu-
nity need before costly expansions.
• Letting businesses join the state’s
prescription drug purchasing pool,
which was made available to all indi-
viduals by a 2006 ballot measure.
• Creating a statewide health insur-
ance pool for all K-12 school employ-
ees and some Community College em-
ployees.
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ANDY STERN
health and vision coverage.
Businesses and individuals would
choose health plans from the list, and
would share the cost of the premiums,
which would be paid to the Trust
Fund. Residents earning less than 250
percent of the poverty level would
have their premiums paid by Medic-
aid, the state and federal program of
health insurance for the poor. Many
details of how the program would
function still have to be worked out.
The Bates-Westlund proposal may
seek access to money spent now by
Medicare in Oregon, borrowing an
idea from former Oregon governor
John Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber and his
group the Archimedes Movement have
argued that the United States could
provide a basic health benefit to every
American for the money that’s already
being spent by the federal government
on health care, if the money in
Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs
and the employer tax deduction were
combined and spent effectively.
Kitzhaber has proposed that Oregon
lead the way by seeking waivers to use
that money differently.
Bates, a medical doctor, told the
AFL-CIO that their bill would focus on
preventable care and keeping people out
of the hospital.
He said under the current system,
“insurance won’t pay for preventive
care, it won’t pay for medications ... but
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All of the donated food and
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We would like to extend a
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(From Page 1)
top five percent of income earners.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
previewed his own detailed proposal
Dec. 13, backed by an entourage that
included Andy Stern, president of the
1.8 million member Service Employ-
ees International Union, and Steve
Burd, CEO of Safeway.
Wyden’s plan would leave insurers
and the entire current system intact,
but relieve employers of the burden of
finding and managing health care ben-
efits. Instead, employers would be re-
quired to “cash out” the value of exist-
ing health benefits over a two-year
period, giving the money to all em-
ployees as a pay raise. After that, all
employers would be required to con-
tribute about 25 percent of the cost of
their employees’ premiums, with the
remainder paid by individuals and the
federal government through individual
tax credits and direct subsidies.
It would be a health care benefit for
all Americans equal to what members
of Congress currently have, paid for on
a sliding scale. Individuals earning less
than the poverty level would pay noth-
ing, while everyone earning up to four
times the poverty level would get
some subsidy. [The poverty level now
stands at about $10,000 for an individ-
ual, $20,000 for a family of four.] In-
surers would have to offer the same
rate to everyone for the basic health
benefit — no longer could they con-
sider occupation, gender, genetic in-
formation, age, or pre-existing condi-
tion in price or eligibility.
To become law in the next two
years, any of these proposals would
have to be signed by President George
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PAGE 3