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2
Aug. 3, 2012
Connect with the worid through Street Roots
W
Oregon's new Medicaid
system a beacon for nation
ealth care costs are sucking the life out of
Americans.
H
It’s true. The United States spends more than any
other country on health care: More than $2 trillion each
year. That’s 17 percent of our GDP goes into health care
costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and it’s
on the rise.
Health care costs are rising faster than our earnings. In
fact, a U.S. Department of Labor study shows that in the
past decade, premiums for employment-based private
insurance rose 114 percent. Small and mid-sized businesses
digit looking
increases
in their
are
at double-
If the promise bears
coverage costs, which
out, Oregon's run with
cut into earnings and
coordinated care
employment
organizations will
opportunities. The cost
has expanded far beyond
prove a working
access for many
template for federal
Americans who are now
health reform.
going without insurance,
or preventative care —
and without jobs. The Oregon Health Authority estimates
16 percent of the state’s population is uninsured.
It is at once a trickle down tragedy and a pyramid scheme
we are all paying into, insured or not. On the other hand,
the system has also created the irony of the perfect
insurance customer: one who has insurance through their
employer, but whose deductibles and pharmaceutical costs
are high enough to prevent them from using it
constructively.
Oregon is poised to show the country that there can be a
better system, one that actually encourages health care
access, rather than discourages its use. The goals to cut
costs mean avoiding the failures in the system. That means
keeping patients out of emergency departments and
win-win.
e are excited to be partnering with
If you are interested in taking part, go to
Hotels4Change and the
Street Roots homepage at www.streetroots.
International Street Newspaper
org and look for the Hotels4Change ad.
Network on a new project to help Street
Street Roots is one of more than 120
Roots raise money.
street newspapers globally. We have street
If you are a
newspapers in 40 countries, in 24
business traveler or
just going on vacation, languages. Street Roots works with the
International Network of Street Papers on a
DIRECTOR'S Hotels4Change lets
variety of projects, including the Street
O SSS
you to book their
News Service, a newswire created to allow
hotels through a
street newspapers around the globe share
By Israel Bayer
booking agency that
gives Street Roots five content.
As the gap between the rich and the poor
percent of the
continues to grow locally and globally, the
purchase.
street newspaper movement offers people
Street newspapers in Holland and Japan
experiencing poverty a hand up and local
have used the program for the past year
communities a chance to be engaged. We
and have offered readers a great deal on
are proud of the work we do. Readers are a
hotel costs, while also raising more than
big part of what makes us successful. We
$20,000 a year off the program. It’s a great
way for people traveling on vacation, or who can’t thank you enough.
live on the road to help Street Roots. It’s a
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him a t israel@
streetroots.org
hospital beds and psychiatric wards. It means keeping them
healthy in their homes, and equally important, keeping
them informed and engaged in their own wellbeing.
It also means that the very real impact of social and
economic disparity can be measured in conjunction with a
person’s health. By contracting with social service
operators, health care providers will have an even greater
investment in alleviating the impact homelessness and
poverty may have on a person’s long-term wellbeing.
If the promise bears out, Oregon’s run with coordinated
care organizations will prove a working template for the
federal health reform movement. So much so that the
federal government has invested $1.9 billion into Oregon’s
new system over the next five years, on the basis that the
system will improve health and lower costs.
We would also hope that it kick starts a new dialogue
around health care - one that focuses on the potential of a
truly healthy population, rather than political rhetoric and
myths of our global superiority in the field.
The coordinated care network is a smart move for Oregon,
and for the 600,000 Oregonians on Medicaid who will now
be enrolled in coordinated care organizations. It has been
years in the making, with a constant push by health care
and social service advocates at all levels to put a promise
into practice. It will not be without its growing pains, but it
has the potential to bridge the gap between believing in a
functional health care system, and actually having one.
Staff
Executive Director Israel Bayer
a newspaper ana otner meota mat are
catalysts for individual and social change.
sj<
is available exclusively through our
street vendors or by subscription. We are proud
members of the North American Street
Newspaper Association and the International
Network of Street Papers.
Street Roots
211 NW Davis St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax: 503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.streetroots.wordpress.com
israel@streetroots.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl
joanne@streetroots.org
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Program Assistant Cole Merkel, Jesuit Volunteer
Amen Corps Member
cole@streetroots.org
Grant Writer Sarah Cloud
Accountant Heather Stadick
Reporters Amanda Waldroupe, Jake Thomas,
Devan Schwartz, Robert Britt, Sue Zalokar
Photographers Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Kristina
Wright
Volunteers
Mary Pacios, Leo Rhodes, Jan Bayer, Eliese Baker,
Sue Zalokar, Michael Moore, Robert Britt, Cynthia
Kiehl, Hannah Schultz, Robyn Wirkes, Shannon
Lattin
Street Roots Rose City Resource
Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a
comprehensive booklet of services for people
experiencing homelessness and poverty.
To inquire about getting an order of the Rose City
Resource for distribution, please write to
pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also
available online at www.rosecityresource.org.
Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.