A Change
of Pace
Singer adapts to
new hometown
See Metro, page 9
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 1
Supreme Court
Appointment
First African
American to serve
state’s highest court
See Local News, page 3
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 3, 2018
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo courtesy yesforhealthcare . org .
Justine Kuunifa, a licensed nurse practitioner from Molalla, supports Measure 101 because of the impact it will have on the families and seniors he treats.
Healthcare on the Line
Measure would
protect coverage for
working poor
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
A wide coalition of health care advo-
cates, including progressive and social
justice organizations, are encouraging a
yes vote in an upcoming special election
to fund a major slice of the Oregon Health
Plan, the state’s health insurance program
serving low income residents.
Voters in the Jan. 23 vote-by-mail elec-
tion will decide if new fees on hospitals,
clinics and insurance companies will cover
the costs of expanding Medicaid coverage
for the working poor, as passed by the Or-
egon Legislature in 2017 but referred to
voters.
Known as Measure 101, the proposal
also specifies that insurance companies are
not allowed to increase customer premi-
ums or their out-of-pocket costs by more
than 1.5 percent as a way to prevent the
added expenses to be passed on to patients.
The assessments would collect between
$210-$320 million, officials said, which
the federal government would match dol-
lar-for-dollar. Without them, the Oregon
economy would lose billions in federal
funds and Oregon Health Plan enrollment
would decline by more than one-third,
making it difficult to maintain the infra-
structure of the state’s coordinated health-
care organizations, advocates say.
Proponents of the measure include a
coalition of over 160 organizations called
Yes for Healthcare, drawing support from
a wide range of civil rights groups, includ-
ing the Urban League of Portland, Basic
Rights Oregon, Multnomah County Dem-
ocrats, and Portland Resistance, the activ-
ist organization formed last year after the
c ontinueD on p age 4