Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
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MIKE FORRESTER
STEVE FORRESTER
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Pendleton
Chairman of the Board
Astoria
President
Pendleton
Secretary/Treasurer
CORY BOLLINGER
JEFF ROGERS
Aberdeen, S.D.
Director
Indianapolis, Ind.
Director
OUR VIEW
Dementia takes costly
toll on rural Oregon
While our nation faces a tsunami
costs were covered by Medicare.”
of rising care costs for people
Spouses who themselves may
suffering from dementia, these
be in poor health often are the
challenges threaten to be even more
front-line caregivers for dementia
overwhelming in rural areas here in
sufferers. Children also assume
Eastern Oregon.
care roles, which take them away
A study released in recent
from jobs or time with their own
days found dementia care to be
children. Professional dementia care
economically devastating for
costs thousands of dollars a month,
Medicare patients in the last ¿ve
swiftly denuding savings. Driven to
years of life — far
destitution, people
more costly than
with dementia
treatment for cancer
may Tualify
Elder care is an ¿nally
or heart disease.
for Medicaid-funded
outsized issue in institutional care.
End-of-life costs
for Americans
these issues
Eastern Oregon. are All
facing these three
magni¿ed in
top killers totaled
rural areas like
$287,038 for dementia, $175,136
ours. Incomes and savings tend to
for heart ailments and $173,383 for
be lower in the ¿rst place. Nursing
cancer.
and assisted-living facilities are less
Medicare currently ends up
available. Options like adult family
paying about the same amount for
homes are scarce and often fully
all three diseases, nearly $100,000.
booked. Children and grandchildren
When it comes to cancer and heart
may be living far away in pursuit
disease, supplemental policies often of jobs. Rural counties have among
pick up much of the balance of drug, the highest percentages of older
surgery and hospitalization bills.
residents in the Paci¿c Northwest.
But with dementia, private coverage
What to do? This is not an
for long-term care is expensive
issue that can be ¿xed by minor
and rarely purchased. As a result,
adjustments in Medicare and
dementia expenses are especially
Medicaid. We must re-envision
punishing to patients, their spouses
all our concepts for caring for
and families.
dementia patients and the elderly
“On average, the out-of-pocket
in general. Federal tax policy needs
cost for a patient with dementia was to do a far better job of helping
$61,522 — more than 80 percent
families cope with care costs, while
higher than the cost for someone
federal spending priorities must
with heart disease or cancer,”
be redirected to aiding vulnerable
according to a story in The New York citizens. What business does
Times. “The reason is that dementia
Congress have funding new bombers
patients need caregivers to watch
when millions of senior citizens
them, help with basic activities like
and their families are engaged in
eating, dressing and bathing, and
silent struggles for life, dignity and
provide constant supervision to
¿nancial solvency?
make sure they do not wander off
The issue of elder care deserves
or harm themselves. None of those
top billing on our national agenda.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
YOUR VIEWS
Cancer Society making
strides against disease
The American Cancer Society and
the signature annual fundraising event.
5elay )or /ife, are actively ¿ghting
the battle against all types of cancer,
including breast cancer. The bulk of the
money raised, 72 percent, goes directly
to research, prevention, detection,
education, and patient support. The rest
— about 28 percent — fuels supporting
services for our lifesaving work to
manage and fund those programs.
ACS’s administrative costs are in line
with the industry standards set by the
Better Business Bureau. But, if you want
to really measure the ACS, look to its
results. We have a business model for
saving lives that is based on evidence
and accomplishment. Since the early
’90s, more than 1 million lives have
been saved that otherwise would have
been lost to cancer. That’s real progress
in the effort to ¿nish the ¿ght against
cancer. Most of the fundraising efforts
are done by volunteers.
Some of the services that ACS
provides are:
• Rides to and from treatment and
medical appointments;
• Toll-free line for cancer info and
support: 800-227-2345
• Website for cancer info and support:
www.cancer.org
• Lodging when travel is necessary
for treatment
• Cancer Action Network, advocacy
organization to ensure that lawmakers
make cancer a top priority
• Look Good Feel Better Program,
which helps patients deal with the
physical effects of treatment
• Free wigs, through Pantene’s
Beautiful Lengths wig program
For our Pendleton readers, the Kick’n
Cancer New Beginnings program
provides emotional and practical support
to all cancer patients who need it. It
meets once a month. The Tough Enough
to Wear Pink campaign raises funds to
combat breast cancer. Relay For Life
raises money to ¿ght cancer. Together,
the three groups raised over $60,000 this
past year.
During the last year, there has been
amazing genetic testing in breast cancer,
to determine what type of treatment is
indicated, customizing the treatment to
the patient’s history and makeup.
Carol Preston, event chair
Gert Hawthorne, mission delivery chair
Pendleton Relay For Life
Improving city roads
improves Pendleton pride
Citizens of Pendleton, it is in all of
our best interest to improve and preserve
our properties.
This not only adds value to our
properties, but at the same time shows
pride of ownership in our community.
Let’s show newcomers to our town
that we care about the infrastructure of
Pendleton and make an investment in
our future.
Let’s get Pendleton out of the
potholes!
Marsha Morgan
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E.
Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
The Ryan and Rubio moment
S
o after all the meshugas on the
us toward a consumption-based system
right over the past few years,
by reducing taxes on investment.
the Republicans could wind up
But he understands that overall
with two new leaders going into this
growth no longer translates directly
election, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan.
to better wages. He adds a big $2,500
That’s a pretty excellent outcome for
child tax credit that is controversial
a party that has shown an amazing
among conservative economists,
tendency to inÀict self-harm.
but that would make life easier for
Ryan is the new House speaker
working families.
David
and right now Rubio is the most likely
His anti-poverty programs are the
Brooks
presidential nominee. The shape of the
biggest departure from traditional
Comment
presidential campaign is coming into
Republicanism. America already
focus. It’s still wise to expect (pray)
spends a fair bit of money aiding the
that the celebrity candidates will fade as the
poor — enough to lift most families out of
shopping phase ends and the buying phase
poverty if we simply wrote them checks. But
begins.
the money Àows through a
Voters don’t have to know
hodgepodge of programs and
the details of their nominee’s
creates perverse incentives.
agenda, but they have to
People are often better
know that the candidate is
off over all if they rely on
capable of having an agenda.
government rather than
Donald Trump and Ben
getting an entry-level job. As
Carson go invisible when the
Oren Cass of the Manhattan
subject of actual governance
Institute has pointed out,
comes up.
there are two million fewer
Jeb Bush’s problems are
Americans working today
temperamental and thus most
than before the recession and
likely permanent. He would
two million more receiving
probably be a very effective
disabilities bene¿ts.
InÀuenced by Cass’ work,
president. And he would
Rubio has tried to offer
have been a very effective
people who aren’t working
candidate — but in 1956.
some basic security, while also championing
These are harsher times.
wage subsidies that would encourage people
Ted Cruz looks likely to emerge as the
to get entry-level jobs. The idea is to reward
candidate of the disaffected white working
people who get on the ladder of opportunity,
class — the noncollege-educated voters
and to compensate for the decline in low-skill
who are now registering their alienation and
wages.
distrust with Trump. But there aren’t enough
Rubio would reform the earned-income tax
of those voters in the primary electorate to
credit and extend it to cover childless workers.
beat Rubio, and Cruz just isn’t likable enough
He would also convert most federal welfare
to build a national campaign around. Rubio,
spending into a “Àex fund” that would go
meanwhile, has no natural enemies anywhere
straight to the states. Rules for these programs
in the party, he has truly impressive natural
would no longer be written in Washington.
skills and his greatest weakness is his greatest
The state agencies that implement welfare
strength: his youth.
policies would have more freedom to design
While other candidates are repeating the
them. He’d maintain overall welfare spending,
formulas of the 1980s and 1990s, Rubio is
adjusting it for inÀation and poverty levels, but
a child of this century. He understands that
it’s no longer enough to cut taxes and say
he’d allow more room for experimentation.
bad things about government to produce
Republican debates rarely touch on
widespread prosperity. In a series of major
education for some reason, but Rubio also
policy speeches over the past two years
has a slew of ideas to reform it. He says the
(he’s one of the few candidates who actually
higher education system is controlled by a
gives them), Rubio has emphasized that new
cartel of well-established institutions that
structural problems threaten the American
block low-cost competitors from entering
dream: technology displacing workers,
the market. He wants student loan costs to be
globalization suppressing wages and the
based on a percentage of a person’s income.
decline of marriage widening ineTuality.
Of all the candidates, Rubio has done
His proposals reÀect this awareness. At
the most to harvest the work of Reform
this stage it’s probably not sensible to get too
Conservatism, which has been sweeping
worked up about the details of any candidate’s through the think tank world. In a year in
plans. They are all wildly unaffordable. What
which many candidates are all marketing,
matters is how a candidate signals priorities.
Rubio is a balance of marketing and product.
Rubio talks speci¿cally about targeting
If Ryan and Rubio do emerge as the party’s
policies to boost middle- and lower-middle-
two leaders, it will be the wonkiest leadership
class living standards.
team in our lifetime. That’s a good thing.
For example, Rubio’s tax policy starts
Ŷ
where all Republican plans start. He would
David Brooks became a New York Times
simplify the tax code, reduce rates and move
Op-Ed columnist in 2003.
Rubio and
Ryan would be
an excellent
outcome for
a party that
has shown a
tendency to
inflict self-harm.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senators
Governor
Ron Wyden
Kate Brown
Washington office:
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office:
541-962-7691
Senator
Jeff Merkley
Bill Hansell, District 29
Washington office:
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office:
541-278-1129
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Representatives
Greg Barreto, District 58
U.S. Representative
Greg Walden
Washington office:
185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office:
541-624-2400
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
Be heard!
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