NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Poll: Majority oppose state tax on health care
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Most Oregonians oppose
a proposed $600 million tax on health
insurance policy premiums to fund the
state’s Medicaid program, according to
a survey by icitizen.
About 58 percent of 645 respondents
surveyed online by the Nashville
pollster said they oppose the tax, while
35 percent support it. Icitizen did
not verify whether respondents were
registered voters, only that they were
Oregon resident.
Three Republican lawmakers want to
refer parts of the law — which raises a
variety of revenues to help the state pay
for the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s
version of Medicaid.
“We have not done any polling so
I have nothing to compare it to, but I
would say it is consistent with feedback
we have received from folks who signed
the petition,” said state Rep. Julie
Parrish, R-West Linn, who spearheaded
a petition for the referral.
Petitioners must gather nearly 59,000
signatures by Oct. 5 to place the referral
on the ballot for a January special
election.
‘Connect the dots’
The survey asked respondents:
“There is an effort to refer Oregon
voters a new, nearly $600 million tax
on health insurance policy premiums.
The money is intended to cover the
costs of the Oregon Health Plan, the
state’s Medicaid program. Would you
support this new tax on health insurance
premiums?”
Parrish said the repeal represents only
$380 million out of the $600 million tax.
“We’re not referring the entire thing,”
she said.
Petitioners, who include Parrish and
Republican state Reps. Sal Esquivel
of Medford and Cedric Hayden of
Roseburg, want to repeal a 0.7 percent
tax on hospitals and providers.
Other sections of the law they want
to refer to voters are taxes on insurers,
the Public Employees Benefits Board
and coordinated care organizations,
regional provider networks for
Medicaid patients. They also want to
stop a provision of the law that allows
insurers to increase premiums by up
to 1.5 percent to recover costs of the
insurer assessment.
Patty Wentz, spokesperson for the
Oregon Health Care Coalition, said the
poll appears to be timed to achieve a
political end.
“Let’s connect some dots. You have
a push poll with wildly inaccurate
information released a few days
before signature turn-in by a political
operative who has been supported by
the same extreme right-wing groups as
the chief petitioner, such as the Oregon
Firearms Federation,” Wentz said.
“This is a cynical political ploy with
no relevance to reality, to the actual
referendum, and what’s at stake for the
one million Oregonians who count on
the Oregon Health Plan and the more
than 210,000 people whose premiums
will increase if the referendum doesn’t
pass. Oregonians who want accurate
information should read the ballot title
BRIEFLY
Confederate
monuments near
Vancouver to lose
historic status
and the fiscal impact estimate that were
created through a bi-partisan public
process and are posted online.”
Split on support for DACA
Respondents, who were registered
users of icitizen, filled out the online
survey online between Sept. 13 and
28. The responses were weighted to
U.S. Census benchmarks for gender,
age, race, education, region and party
identification in the state. The margin of
error is 3.9 percent for the full sample of
645 respondents.
The survey also gauged Oregonians’
views on other state policies.
A new law expanding coverage of
reproductive health care, including
abortion, to people of all incomes, U.S.
citizenship status and gender identity
garnered 49 percent support and 50
percent opposition.
Respondents also were almost evenly
split over a new law to reduce criminal
penalties for possession of heroin,
cocaine and methamphetamine from a
felony to a misdemeanor.
A majority of respondents, 54 percent,
oppose sanctuary cities, which prohibit
police from profiling immigrants and
from assisting federal authorities in
enforcing federal immigration law.
More than half of respondents, 51
percent, support ending the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals. The
program allows undocumented youth
brought to the country as children to
legally work and attend school here.
—— Pamplin Media/EO Media
Group Capital Bureau reporter Claire
Withycombe contributed to this story.
VANCOUVER, Wash.
(AP) — County officials
in Vancouver, Washington,
have voted to remove
highway markers honoring
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis from the
Clark County Heritage
Register.
The Columbian reports
the Clark County Historic
Preservation Commission
voted on the delisting
Tuesday night.
The commissioners
said the marker, which
was installed in Vancouver
in 1939, failed meet
established standards for a
community heritage site.
Commissioner Alex
Gall said the marker also
lost its historic integrity
when it was moved from
its original spot to its
current home on private
property along Interstate 5
near Ridgefield.
The marker and a
similar piece of granite
originally installed in
Blaine, near the Canadian
border, now are part of
Jefferson Davis Park which
also includes Confederate
flags.
The voting followed
almost 90 minutes of
public testimony, with
comments in support and
against the heritage register
designation.
Audit: DHS should improve oversight of in-home care
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Lack of oversight, data
gaps, and overworked case managers
could continue to put low-income
Oregonians receiving in-home care at
risk, state auditors said in a Wednesday
report.
Auditors from the Oregon Secre-
tary of State’s Office said the Oregon
Department of Human Services should
take “immediate action” to improve
in-home care for seniors and people
with disabilities in a program serving
about 13,000 people.
DHS offers several in-home care
programs for seniors and people with
disabilities. The program that auditors
focused on is the Consumer-Employed
Provider, or CEP, program.
About 13,230 people are enrolled
in the CEP program, which allows
low-income seniors and people with
disabilities to choose their own home-
care workers.
The program is for people who
qualify for Medicaid, which is paid for
both by the state and the federal govern-
ment.
When a person is enrolled in the CEP
program, he or she has two main people
on their team: a case manager from
DHS who handles administrative func-
tions like evaluating the person’s needs,
and a homecare worker who does the
day-to-day work of in-home care, such
as preparing meals and administering
medications.
A key part of the CEP program is
that the people receiving in-home care
are also employers: they hire, train and
dismiss their own in-home care workers.
But an information vacuum puts the
agency at risk of missing when people
in the CEP program need more help,
according to the audit.
State and federal rules stipulate that
case managers monitor CEP program
participants, but auditors found that
a third of patients they surveyed for
the audit didn’t get all of the required
check-ins from a case manager in 2016.
Two-thirds never received an
in-person visit, other than an annual
assessment. Home visits by case
managers are not required, but can help
case managers — and the state — keep
closer tabs on whether in-home care
recipients are getting what they need.
The agency is required to conduct
a risk assessment when it initiates a
service plan for an in-home care recip-
ient, but auditors found cases where
case managers didn’t do an initial risk
assessment.
Patients found to be higher-risk
require more contacts from case
managers.
Auditors said that in the cases they
reviewed, “insufficient documentation”
prevented them from determining
whether high-risk patients got the
additional required contact with case
managers.
The data that the agency does collect
focuses more on case manager perfor-
mance than on the welfare of people
receiving services, auditors said.
“There is no aspect of the quality
assurance process or consumer moni-
toring or assessment reports that looks
at consumers’ well-being,”the auditors
wrote.
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East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday
and Dec. 25, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to
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SEATTLE (AP) — An
immigration judge in
Washington state declined
to release an Iraq War
veteran from custody
Wednesday while he fights
the government’s efforts to
deport him.
Chong Kim, a South
Korean immigrant and
green card holder from
Portland, struggled
Single copy price:
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TODAY
FRIDAY
Partly to mostly
sunny
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
68° 42°
76° 50°
SATURDAY
Partly sunny,
breezy and cooler
SUNDAY
Mostly sunny and
cool
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REGIONAL CITIES
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
64° 45°
61° 36°
61° 36°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
78° 51°
70° 40°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
60°
69°
90° (1892)
35°
44°
27° (1916)
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"
0.05"
0.13"
12.34"
8.09"
9.07"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
63°
71°
87° (1958)
32°
42°
26° (2012)
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"
0.03"
0.07"
7.04"
5.44"
6.63"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
Last
Oct 5
Oct 12
New
Oct 19
67° 37°
66° 34°
Seattle
70/48
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
69° 47°
6:59 a.m.
6:28 p.m.
6:53 p.m.
6:39 a.m.
First
Oct 27
Today
MONDAY
Sunny to partly
cloudy and cool
Spokane
Wenatchee
65/42
68/43
Tacoma
Moses
70/38
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 70/37
64/41
70/46
72/39
73/35
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
73/43
69/47 Lewiston
71/40
Astoria
68/43
70/45
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
74/46
Pendleton 61/36
The Dalles 70/40
68/42
75/41
La Grande
Salem
63/36
75/43
Albany
Corvallis 74/40
75/42
John Day
65/39
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
66/35
74/41
66/37
Caldwell
Burns
64/36
63/25
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
Hi
70
64
66
68
63
61
74
66
70
65
67
63
61
78
66
69
66
71
68
74
67
75
65
61
74
69
73
Lo
45
28
37
51
25
36
41
43
40
39
30
36
35
42
46
47
35
38
42
46
29
43
42
34
45
47
35
W
s
pc
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Fri.
Hi
63
73
76
71
73
70
76
74
78
75
76
73
71
83
64
67
71
78
76
72
78
75
67
71
72
76
75
Lo
49
33
38
52
31
44
43
47
51
42
33
45
43
45
48
48
38
48
50
51
34
47
46
40
51
52
42
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
s
pc
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
71
92
75
62
72
49
65
76
74
80
67
Lo
50
82
61
46
54
42
44
60
57
64
61
W
s
sh
s
pc
pc
r
sh
s
pc
pc
pc
Fri.
Hi
74
91
74
59
71
49
60
74
69
72
67
Lo
53
82
59
47
53
41
42
53
59
55
62
W
s
t
s
pc
pc
r
s
pc
r
pc
r
WINDS
Medford
78/42
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
67/30
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Plenty of sun today; pleas-
ant. Mainly clear tonight.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Partly sunny
today; however, sunnier near the Cascades.
Clear tonight.
Western Washington: Sunshine today.
Mainly clear tonight; however, mostly
cloudy at the coast.
Eastern Washington: Partly to mostly sunny
today. Clear to partly cloudy tonight. Partly
sunny tomorrow.
Cascades: Sunny today. Clear tonight. Sunny
to partly cloudy tomorrow; pleasant.
Northern California: Plenty of sunshine
today. Cold in the interior mountains; pleas-
ant in central parts.
Today
Friday
WNW 3-6
NW 4-8
WSW 7-14
WSW 8-16
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
1
PORTLAND (AP) — A
grand jury has indicted
a 22-year-old man in the
death of another man who
was found at the base of a
northeast Portland cliff.
The Portland Police
Bureau says a Multnomah
County grand jury on
Thursday indicted Avonte
Armstead on one charge of
murder.
Police say the body of
Irving Batalla was found
July 7, 2015. The Oregon
State Medical Examiner
performed an autopsy and
determined Batalla died of
blunt force injuries.
Police say an
investigation found that
Armstead killed Batalla.
Police say Armstead is
being extradited from a jail
in Carson City, Nevada, to
Multnomah County Jail.
Corrections
Copyright © 2017, EO Media Group
Forecast
Man indicted for
murder in death
of man found at
cliff base
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the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
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— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
Judge won’t
release Iraq War
veteran fighting
deportation
with drug addition,
homelessness and post-
traumatic stress following
his time in Iraq in 2009
and 2010, leading to
convictions for burglary
and other charges.
Kim’s lawyer and
friends have said he has
done well since completing
a substance abuse
treatment program run by
the Department of Veterans
Affairs early this year.
But immigration agents
arrested him in April
and brought him to a
detention center in Tacoma,
Washington. They plan to
deport him because of his
convictions.
“It’s just wrong to
be deporting an Army
veteran,” said Matt Luce,
41, of Troutdale, who
attended high school
with Kim and traveled
with three other former
classmates to the hearing.
“Despite his convictions,
he was on and continues
to be on the right path.
This is just a travesty of
justice.”
2
3
3
2
1
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.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
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: Drenching rain and storms are forecast from part of the Midwest to the
southern Rockies. Downpours will riddle the Florida Peninsula and part of South Texas. Rain
and snow will fall on the northern Rockies.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 101° in Tucson, Ariz.
Low 2° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
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
78
83
78
82
57
85
64
80
84
80
72
79
88
67
77
89
51
63
88
88
76
83
76
86
86
83
Lo
60
62
67
61
39
62
41
59
66
56
59
61
68
48
56
70
34
39
74
66
64
74
64
62
63
62
W
t
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
s
r
c
pc
c
s
pc
c
s
pc
s
c
pc
r
s
pc
s
Fri.
Hi
80
83
79
83
66
87
70
72
86
84
70
76
89
63
66
93
47
59
85
89
79
83
77
87
87
91
Lo
46
67
66
60
48
71
45
58
70
55
64
64
70
41
60
61
37
44
73
67
66
74
57
62
67
66
Today
W
pc
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
sh
pc
pc
r
r
s
sh
r
s
c
pc
pc
s
c
t
t
s
pc
s
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
81
86
83
68
63
86
85
82
82
70
83
99
76
81
83
60
69
84
82
65
76
74
70
99
84
76
Lo
62
64
80
56
48
59
71
64
66
59
66
70
53
59
56
40
40
48
65
44
61
55
48
68
65
66
W
pc
pc
t
r
r
s
s
pc
pc
r
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
s
c
s
pc
s
s
s
s
t
Fri.
Hi
86
87
89
69
61
87
87
74
84
67
81
99
71
75
85
58
76
88
81
64
81
79
65
96
84
85
Lo
66
70
81
62
52
66
75
63
59
53
66
67
48
58
60
42
43
51
66
46
62
55
51
59
66
56
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
pc
pc
t
r
r
pc
s
c
c
sh
pc
s
c
sh
s
pc
s
s
c
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
t