Wednesday, February 2, 2022
A4
OPINION
OTHER VIEWS
Oregon’s
single-payer
plan won’t
cover this
type of care
W
hen you hear that Ore-
gon might move to a sin-
gle-payer, state-run health
plan, you may think: Yes!
Every Oregonian would get health
care coverage and the same level of
coverage. Equity and quality might go
up. Overall costs may be held down.
You would pay taxes instead of health
care premiums.
That’s the kind of plan the state’s
Joint Task Force on Universal Health
Care is supposed to develop. It met
again Thursday, taking another step
toward its goal of submitting a Health
Care for All Oregon Plan to the Legisla-
ture by September 2022.
Is Oregon going to make such a
momentous shift in health care? Should
skeptical Oregonians, health insurers,
pharmaceutical companies and others
be nervous?
We can’t answer that. We are just
going to slice off one piece of this issue.
That’s a form of care that the plan won’t
cover: long-term services and supports.
Long-term services and supports
is medical and nonmedical care pro-
vided to people who are not able to do
things for themselves, such as cook,
dress, bathe or make it to the bathroom.
The harsh reality is that while people
can need that at any stage of life, Medi-
care and most health insurance do not
pay for it. People need to “spend down”
their assets to where they have very lit-
tle left and keep their assets low to be
eligible for government assistance.
Buying additional insurance can help.
That harsh reality would continue
under an Oregon single-payer plan,
at least as the task force discussed on
Thursday. They even deleted on Thurs-
day language from their proposed rec-
ommendation to the Legislature that
highlighted the issue. Struck from the
recommendation was this sentence:
“Oregonians who are not eligible for
LTSS benefits will continue to ‘spend
down’ assets before becoming eligible.”
Task force members weren’t trying to
hide what they were doing. It is just not
something Oregon’s single-payer plan
would do. It’s a state of affairs in health
care that isn’t going to change.
No state that has been developing a
single-payer plan has found a simple
way to cover long-term services. They
have all struggled with it, as Oregon’s
task force is. If the government started
paying for that type of long-term care,
it would increase health care costs sub-
stantially for any new health system
because substantial parts of it aren’t
covered now.
It might be that an Oregon sin-
gle-payer plan would cover long-term
services and supports at some point in
the future. For now it’s important to
note that a type of care that many Ore-
gonians may need at some point in
their lives would not be covered by the
Health Care for All Oregon Plan.
— Bend Bulletin
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Ranchers deserve
praise for stepping up
Reply to Ranchers concerned over
Dean Ranch cattle:
Our community has come together
with compassion and determination to
rescue stranded and starving cattle in
Upper Imnaha. So many people volun-
teered and donated their time and money,
taking time away from their own jobs and
herds. Donations of money, hay, search-
ing on snowmobiles, by air, on sleds and
building sleds to to bring the cattle and
calves to safety, bottle feeding the calves
to save their lives in dreadful weather
conditions to rescue these animals.
Wallowa County ranchers have a stel-
lar reputation as cattlemen as do the resi-
dents who came together to assist in this
sad situation. I am so proud to live in this
community.
These heroes need to be acknowl-
edged, having done this without expect-
ing anything in return.
I, along with countless others wish to
thank you for your hard work and sense
of community.
Thank you Mark and Anna Butterfield,
Cory and Deena Miller, Greg and Trent
Bales, Cody Ross, Justin Exon, Eric But-
terfield, Dave Staigle, Rawley Bigsby, Jay
Myra, Dean Ranch hands, Stangle Indus-
tries, Wallowa County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment, Wallowa County Road Department,
Tom and Kelly Birkmaier, Adam Stein,
Todd Nash and all local ranchers and resi-
dents. We pray this never happens again.
This is what defines our community,
this is what we are made of. Way to go
Wallowa County!
Karen Frioli
Enterprise
What happened
to cattle was unethical
As a retired cattle rancher from the
Snake River country, I know how import-
ant it is to get cattle out of the high coun-
try by snow time.
What happened to the Dean Ranch cat-
tle was unethical, in my opinion.
Three important things in ranching are:
1) Good care of your livestock, 2) Good
care of your land, because without good
grasslands you cannot have good livestock
and 3) Good ethical animal husbandry.
What’s the meaning of ethical? It is
honesty, integrity, impartiality, fairness,
loyalty, dedication, responsibility and
accountability. It is also the practice of
protecting livestock welfare.
Quit milking dead cows for
inflammatory opinions
How long are you going to milk those
dead cows for inflammatory and sensa-
tional opinions that may not be fact? You
are doing injury to the entire cattle busi-
ness. Also, can’t you publish photos of
people that do not make them look like
Bill the Cat? A little professionalism is
long overdue.
Patty Engelking
Wallowa
CONTACT your REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa County Chieftain editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of
the Wallowa County Chieftain.
LETTERS: The Wallowa County Chieftain 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
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-398-5502 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Contents copyright © 2022. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
• • •
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
infringe on the rights of private citizens. 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: editor@wallowa.com, or via mail to Wallowa County Chieftain, 209 NW 1st St.
Enterprise, OR 97828
General Manager, Karrine Brogoitti, kbrogoitti@eomediagroup.com
Editor, Ronald Bond, rbond@wallowa.com
Reporter, Bill Bradshaw, bbradshaw@wallowa.com
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Advertising Assistant, Devi Mathson, dmathson@lagrandeobserver.com
To submit news tips and press releases, call 541-398-5502
or email editor@wallowa.com
SENATOR
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
Member Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
USPS No. 665-100
Cliff Bentz
1239 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
VOLUME 134
In ranching, livestock is your bread
and butter. They are your main income, so
you have to do all you can to keep them
alive and healthy as possible. To have a
successful operation, you have to have
respect for livestock.
Every season, every month and
every day has its own set of tasks when
ranching.
While you may get away with putting
off undesirable tasks in the world outside
of ranching, it doesn’t work like that when
you’re a rancher.
Failure to be ethical and to plan ahead
is a recipe for disaster.
Casey Tippett
Joseph
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