WEATHER
East Oregonian
Page 2A
REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
SATURDAY
TODAY
Sunny, hot; breezy
in the p.m.
Very warm with
plenty of sun
98° 60°
96° 63°
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Sunny
Sunny and
beautiful
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
93° 63°
87° 56°
88° 60°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
100° 66°
102° 63°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
99°
86°
108° (1968)
62°
57°
42° (1898)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.00"
0.06"
11.30"
6.47"
7.63"
through 3 p.m. yesterday
HIGH
LOW
101°
87°
105° (1968)
65°
57°
44° (2010)
0.00"
0.00"
0.04"
6.59"
4.64"
5.74"
SUN AND MOON
July 8
July 16
New
5:14 a.m.
8:46 p.m.
7:34 p.m.
4:16 a.m.
First
July 23
July 30
John Day
97/58
Ontario
104/69
Bend
92/53
Burns
96/53
Caldwell
104/67
Hi
66
94
92
63
96
94
80
94
102
97
91
95
92
95
61
62
104
104
98
80
95
81
99
93
78
100
101
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Lo
51
54
53
52
53
54
50
58
63
58
52
59
55
60
48
51
69
59
60
55
49
54
65
50
53
67
60
W
pc
s
s
pc
s
t
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
s
s
pc
s
s
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Sat.
Hi
68
92
93
66
97
93
86
94
100
97
94
94
92
97
62
64
103
98
96
85
95
88
94
91
84
97
98
Lo
54
55
56
54
56
58
50
59
66
62
52
62
58
61
50
52
72
61
63
58
51
56
65
53
55
69
63
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
WORLD CITIES
Today
Hi
92
87
83
83
69
59
90
90
84
66
84
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Lo
71
81
66
62
56
48
64
65
74
46
73
Sat.
W
pc
t
s
pc
pc
r
s
s
r
s
pc
Hi
94
87
86
78
67
56
87
88
83
64
86
Lo
74
82
66
61
56
51
66
67
75
45
74
W
pc
sh
s
pc
t
sh
c
s
r
s
pc
WINDS
Medford
95/60
PRECIPITATION
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
Last
Albany
82/51
Eugene
80/50
TEMPERATURE
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
93° 62°
Spokane
Wenatchee
99/65
98/65
Tacoma
Moses
75/48
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 103/59
93/57
65/50
75/47
101/60
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
74/51
100/67 Lewiston
104/61
Astoria
100/66
66/51
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
80/55
Pendleton 94/54
The Dalles 102/63
98/60
89/60
La Grande
Salem
95/59
81/54
Corvallis
82/51
HERMISTON
Yesterday
Normals
Records
91° 60°
Seattle
75/55
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
97° 67°
Today
TUESDAY
Sunny and
pleasant
Friday, July 7, 2017
(in mph)
Boardman
Pendleton
Klamath Falls
91/52
REGIONAL FORECAST
Eastern Washington: Mostly sunny today.
Clear to partly cloudy tonight. Plenty of sun
tomorrow.
Cascades: Plenty of sun today. Clear
tonight. Very warm tomorrow with plenty
of sunshine.
Northern California: Clouds, then sun at
the coast today; hot in central parts. Sunny
elsewhere.
Saturday
WSW 4-8
NW 4-8
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Coastal Oregon: Low clouds giving way to
sunshine today. Mainly clear tonight. Mostly
sunny tomorrow.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Sunshine
and very hot today. A moonlit sky tonight.
Mostly sunny and hot tomorrow.
Western Washington: Low clouds followed
by sunshine today. Partly cloudy tonight.
Sunny tomorrow.
Today
WSW 8-16
W 7-14
2
5
7
7
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
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8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
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-10s
showers t-storms
Continued from 1A
emergency rooms.
“We saw our bad debt and
charity care go down,” Burke
said, referring to expenses the
hospital writes off for patients
that can’t or won’t pay. “At
hospitals across the state, we
saw our margins improve.”
However, that’s changing,
he said, not because of
Medicare (Oregon Health
Plan) enrollees, but rather
because of those insured on
the exchanges. As insurance
premiums climb, many are
dropping from platinum and
gold plans down to silver
and bronze plans that require
larger deductibles.
“Charity care and bad debt
are going back up again,”
Burke said. “Some people
can’t afford what their insur-
ance doesn’t pay.”
In addition, some young
and healthy people dropped
totally out of the insurance
markets, opting to pay the
cheaper penalty. That boosted
premiums for those who
remained.
Hospitals began to feel the
sea change. Geller said St.
Anthony’s charity care this
year is $1.5 million, roughly
three times last year’s total of
$500,000.
Despite the imperfections
of the ACA, neither CEO is a
fan of the U.S. Senate’s Better
Care Reconciliation Act.
Citing a report by the Oregon
Health Authority and the
Department of Consumer and
Business Services, Geller said
the state would lose billions
from its Medicaid program
and a third of Oregonians
receiving insurance through
the exchanges would become
uninsured.
“About 440,000 will lose
coverage (by 2021),” Geller
said. “The Senate bill is more
tragic than the House bill in
the long run.”
“In Oregon, we have
more at stake than most other
states,” Burke said. “We are
the fourth most dependent of
the 50 states on federal dollars
supporting our Medicaid
program — it’s not an envi-
able position.”
Nationally, the Congres-
sional Budget Office estimates
that 22 million people will
lose health insurance by 2026
under the Republican plan.
Additionally, the bill
offers little help to hospitals,
many of which are
becoming fiscally
fragile. Recently,
two hospitals just
over the state line
in
Washington
reported financial
problems.
Walla
Walla
General
Hospital will close
July 24 while Trios
Health, a hospital Burke
located in Kenne-
wick, announced
last week it would
seek Chapter 9
bankruptcy protec-
tion.
“There’s
a
perception
that
hospitals are flush
with cash. That’s
not true,” Geller Geller
said. “There is a lot
of pressure on large, medium
and small hospitals.”
Eight of the larger Oregon
hospitals are losing money,
he said, and another 17 aren’t
generating sufficient profit to
replace capital equipment.
The GOP health care bill
could weaken those hospitals
further.
Not all is grim, however.
The CEOs had praise for a
federal health care-related bill
passed in 2015 — MACRA,
the Medicare Access and
CHIP (Children’s Health
Insurance Program) Reau-
thorization Act. The title
is daunting, an acronym
within an acronym, but it’s a
beacon of hope and proof that
legislators on both sides of
the aisle can come together,
said Geller. Lawmakers voted
overwhelmingly to pass the
bill, a massive change in the
way doctors who treat Medi-
care patients are reimbursed,
starting in 2019.
“It’s going to be huge,”
Geller said. “It’s going to be a
paradigm shift.”
Medicare payments to
doctors will be tied to the cost
of care and to health outcomes,
rather than the number of tests
and procedures they order or
perform.
“If you’re very efficient
with high-quality outcomes,
you’ll get bonus
payments,” Geller
said. “If you’re at
the other end, you’ll
be penalized. There
will be winners and
there’s going to be
losers.”
Geller
said
the bill had vast
bipartisan support,
passing 92-8 in the
Senate and 392-37
in the House, but
didn’t attract much
attention from the
media. The legisla-
tion, he said, reflects
just how much both
Democrats
and
Republicans worry
about
mounting
health care costs.
The United States
pays $9,237 annually per
man, woman and child for
health care, at least twice as
much per capita than other
developed countries and has
lower life expectancy than
many of them.
“Both parties have railed
for years on cost,” Geller said.
“There’s universal agreement.
We’re hitting up against 20
percent of GDP (for health
care costs). That’s a problem.
Both parties recognize it. It’s
one-sixth of the economy and
everyone is touched by it.”
While both men are
immersed in health care daily
and pay a lot of attention to
proposed health care-related
legislation coming down the
pike, neither administrator is
making any grand predictions
for the future.
Burke shook his head and
flashed a wry smile.
“It’s complicated,” he said.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Corrections
Paul Gadaire’s name was misspelled in a Wednesday article about the Pendleton Fourth
of July parade. The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any
errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Heavy storms will riddle the South, while severe weather is a concern
from the Ohio Valley to the lower Great Lakes today. Rain will taper off in New England.
Storms will dot the Rockies and Sierra Nevada.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 117° in Needles, Calif.
Low 35° in Angel Fire, N.M.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
95
87
81
87
95
87
103
72
95
86
82
84
95
92
85
95
79
82
87
92
85
95
88
114
94
96
Lo
69
73
72
70
67
73
69
65
78
69
60
65
77
59
59
73
57
58
75
75
61
75
63
90
73
71
W
t
t
r
pc
s
t
s
r
t
pc
pc
t
pc
t
t
s
pc
s
s
t
t
t
pc
s
s
pc
Sat.
Hi
93
90
86
88
99
90
102
86
94
81
81
77
96
88
79
97
79
87
88
95
78
96
87
113
89
96
Lo
69
71
67
63
69
72
72
65
76
58
62
60
77
61
58
74
61
61
74
76
59
75
67
90
70
70
Today
W
t
t
pc
pc
s
t
s
pc
t
pc
s
pc
s
t
pc
pc
c
s
pc
t
s
t
s
pc
t
s
Hi
Louisville
90
Memphis
92
Miami
91
Milwaukee
76
Minneapolis
82
Nashville
89
New Orleans
90
New York City
80
Oklahoma City
97
Omaha
87
Philadelphia
87
Phoenix
116
Portland, ME
75
Providence
73
Raleigh
91
Rapid City
92
Reno
99
Sacramento
104
St. Louis
93
Salt Lake City
103
San Diego
81
San Francisco
71
Seattle
75
Tucson
110
Washington, DC 89
Wichita
97
Lo
69
76
80
59
63
73
77
72
72
65
73
92
60
65
72
59
69
63
69
74
69
54
55
82
74
68
W
t
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
r
s
pc
r
s
r
r
t
pc
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
t
pc
t
Sat.
Hi
84
90
91
78
85
88
91
85
93
90
88
112
82
87
93
96
100
97
89
103
81
69
81
106
89
84
Lo
64
71
80
64
66
66
77
66
71
69
66
90
58
63
67
66
69
58
70
76
69
54
57
81
69
69
W
s
pc
pc
s
s
pc
t
pc
t
s
pc
t
t
pc
pc
s
pc
s
s
pc
pc
pc
s
t
pc
c
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
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Copyright © 2017, EO Media Group
HOSPITAL: St. Anthony’s charity
care this year is $1.5 million
-0s
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NEWS
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Transportation package
heads to governor’s desk
Required a three-
fifths majority vote
in each chamber
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A $5.3
billion statewide transpor-
tation package is headed
to Gov. Kate Brown for a
signature after the Senate
passed the bill 22-to-7
Thursday.
“This is a critical and
most important piece of
legislation. This is the
piece of legislation is what
the 2017 session will be
known for 20, 30, 40 years
from now,” said Sen. Rod.
Monroe, D-Portland, one of
14 lawmakers who crafted
the plan.
The House of Repre-
sentatives passed the bill
39-to-20 Wednesday.
Due to tax hikes and
new taxes, the bill required
a three-fifths majority vote
in each chamber, according
to the Oregon Constitution.
The
10-year
plan
includes hikes in the gas tax,
registration and title fees
and new taxes on payroll,
new vehicle purchases and
bicycles priced more than
$200.
The package also calls
for
congestion-priced
tolling at some of Portland’s
bottlenecks. The Oregon
Transportation Commission
is responsible for estab-
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The Oregon Senate on Thursday approved a $5.3
billion transportation package. It now goes to the
governor for her signature.
lishing the program, which
could toll certain lanes on
Interstate 5 and Interstate
205 to pay for conges-
tion-busting projects.
Among projects speci-
fied in the plan are conges-
tion relief on Highway
217, widening northbound
Interstate 205 from Powell
Boulevard to Interstate 84
and initial investment in
adding new lanes to Inter-
state 5 through Portland’s
Rose Quarter.
The plan also includes
other projects around
the state. Senators each
received a summary of what
projects in their respective
districts are included.
The plan hikes the state’s
existing 30-cent gas tax
gradually over a seven-
year period to a total of
40 cents. Registration fees
would climb by $13 and
title fees by $16 in 2018.
Beginning in 2020, the
state would move toward a
tiered system of registration
and title fees based on a
vehicle’s gas mileage.
The plan also levies a 0.5
percent tax on the purchase
of new vehicles. About $12
million of the revenue from
the proceeds of the vehicle
excise tax would be used
for rebates on the purchase
of electric vehicles.
A $15 flat fee would be
charged on the purchase
of new adult bicycles with
a price tag of more than
$200. The proceeds of that
would go toward paying
for commuter bicycle and
pedestrian paths.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.