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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2008)
Big choices ahead devising health care plan to cover all Oregonians Cheers to union fundraising program Jeff McDonald (left), secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, leads a toast for retiring Local 555 President Gene Pronovost, at the finish of the 12th annual Pronovost Foundation Golf Tournament. The event raises money for college scholarships and to fight leukemia. This year, 13 scholarships totaling $14,000 were awarded to members of Local 555, their children and/or spouses. An additional $20,000 was collected for the Leukemia Foundation. Pronovost is retiring at the end of the year after serving four terms as president of the largest private-sector union in Oregon. Since its inception, the fundraiser has donated more than $135,500 to the Leukemia Foundation and doled out $112,600 in scholarship money to Local 555 members and their families. b h m k Bennett Hartman Morris & Kaplan, llp Attorneys at Law Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm Representing Workers Since 1960 Serious Injury and Death Cases • Construction Injuries • Automobile Accidents • Medical, Dental, and Legal Malpractice • Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents • Pedestrian Accidents • Premises Liability (injuries on premises) • Workers’ Compensation Injuries • Social Security Claims We Work Hard for Hard-Working People! SALEM — A complicated pro- posal to require health insurance for all Oregonians is nearing the next phase. Six citizen committees that have worked on different parts of the plan since last winter are finalizing their recommendations to the gover- nor-appointed Oregon Health Fund Board. That Board was conceived by last year’s Senate Bill 329, which was itself the work of a 2006 interim Sen- ate commission. Now the seven-member Oregon Health Fund Board will have until Oc- tober to decide what to propose to the Legislature for its 2009 session, which begins in January. Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain is labor’s representative on the Oregon Health Fund Board. As spelled out by SB 329, the “Oregon Health Fund” is supposed to require all uninsured Oregonians to purchase private health insurance, but also make it available to them at an af- fordable rate through subsidies, tax credits, and, maybe, pooling purchas- ing power. Organized labor was broadly repre- sented on the committees, but some of the unionist committee members are disappointed with recommendations that fell short of gutsy. “If our vision is too small, we will get nothing,” said Lynn-Marie Crider, a health policy expert who works for Service Employees International Union Local 49. Crider served on the Oregon Health Fund Board’s Finance Com- mittee, which was supposed to pro- pose how to pay for the insurance that 600,000 presently uninsured Oregoni- ans would be required to get. The committee failed to reach consensus on how to pay for the plan, and in- stead put forward several options, in- cluding funding it entirely with an em- Q ployer payroll tax — or combining a payroll tax with a tax on health care providers or on higher-income Orego- nians. Crider said too little is being pro- posed to restrain health care costs, a view echoed by Teamsters Local 206 Union Representative Stefan Ostrach, who served on the Board’s Delivery Systems Committee. His committee was supposed to look at ways to rein in costs, but Ostrach said they ignored that charge. In the end, he produced a minority report to the Board. “The direction this whole process seems to be going,” Ostrach wrote, “will be a boon for insurance compa- nies, forcing hundreds of thousands of individuals to buy their products — and a boon for hospitals, relieving them of the cost of charity and other uncompensated care.” Ostrach faulted his committee for failing to propose any mechanism to redirect those insurance and hospital windfalls to defray the costs of insur- ing the uninsured. Meeting with the Oregon Health Fund Board for the first time June 11, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, too, stressed that the Oregon Health Fund won’t be able to expand and sustain health care coverage if it doesn’t control and re- duce health care costs. Kulongoski also told the Board what his health care priorities will be for the 2009 legislative session. A re- quirement that all uninsured Oregoni- ans buy health insurance along the lines envisioned by the authors of SB 329 was not on the list. Instead, the governor wants to expand enrollment in the Oregon Health Plan (the exist- ing health insurance plan for low-in- come Oregonians), and make another attempt to expand children’s health in- surance using a tobacco tax increase. [Last year, the Legislature referred Quest Investment Management, Inc. 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And expand- ing health coverage among children and lower-income Oregonians would be a first step. “If next year the Legislature ex- pands the Oregon Health Plan by 100,000 and provides insurance to 125,000 children, that’s a third of the uninsured,” Chamberlain said. Kulongoski’s goals are compatible with the comprehensive insurance mandate outlined by SB 329, said Ben Westlund, the act’s co-sponsor last year in the Oregon Senate. “[SB 329] does call for a compre- hensive plan to be introduced in 2009,” Westlund said. “That doesn’t mean you push a magic button and achieve those goals in six months or a year.” Westlund said political considera- tions will have to figure in what the Board proposes. Westlund himself is leaving the Senate to run for state treasurer, and faces Republican Allen Alley, Kulongoski’s former economic development adviser, for the office. If he wins, Westlund said he will use the higher-profile “bully pulpit” of the statewide elected office to continue his advocacy of health care reform. “We’ve got to build a very strong coalition,” Westlund said — in order to bring about the comprehensive health care program the Legislature committed to in SB 329, “because we’re getting to the point in the deci- sion-making process where there are going to be winners and losers.” Building a better mousetrap does- n’t mean anything, Westlund said. “Passing it through the Legislature — that’s something. The sad truth is it’s easy to kill a bill in committee, and the bigger the bill, the harder it is to pass.” 1638 NE Broadway, Portland Rain Forest Boots Made in America! Try a pair on, you’ll like them. Tough boots for the Northwest. AL’S SHOES 5811 SE 82nd, Portland 503-771-2130 Mon-Fri 10-7:30 Sat 10-5:30 Sun 12-6 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS JUNE 20, 2008
