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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2020)
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 Baker City, Oregon 4A Write a letter news@bakercityherald.com OUR VIEW Health care cost cap a mixed bag The cost of health care has been growing faster than wages and faster than the state economy. Some Oregonians cannot get the health care cover- age they want or worry they can’t afford going to the doctor. There are numbers that back up those concerns. Deductibles in Oregon are the third highest in the nation, according to the Oregon Health Authority. And Oregon is fourth highest in the country for the percent of individuals with high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income. Oregon is looking at doing what Delaware, Massa- chusetts and Rhode Island have done: put a cap on the increase in health care costs. A state committee is charged with coming up with a plan to present to the Oregon Legislature. One real benefi t could be the incentives the cap creates to change how providers are compensated for patient care. One real worry is the unintended consequences any reforms may create along the way. The magic number for Oregon may well be 3.4% for 2021-25, and then 3% for 2026-30. That’s how much costs would be allowed to go up. What hap- pens if the cap breaks? Would it be enforced? Will quality of care suffer? Those are questions that need to be answered. Massachusetts got off to a start with cost controls in 2012. Other states followed. So, did it work in Massachusetts? Costs did decline. For instance, that state stayed below a benchmark of a 3.6% increase in overall health care spending in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018. But if you look into the data a little deeper, there were also worrisome trends. For in- stance, costs for consumers and patients rose more quickly in 2018. Individuals with private insurance had their out-of-pocket costs increase by 6.1% and premiums rose 5.2% from 2016-18, according to the Boston Globe. More residents also signed up for high deductible plans. Those changes should not be discounted. The theory has been if overall costs are controlled it will translate eventually into lower insurance costs for consumers. That logic is hard to argue with. But there do seem to be unintended consequences, such as cost-shifting to consumers. And if more people move to high deductible plans, should that be con- sidered victory? SEIU Local 49 expressed concern at the commit- tee’s last meeting that health care workers will see their wages get squeezed as Oregon health care providers cut costs. The Oregon Association of Hos- pitals and Health Systems said it was worried that because of the pandemic the state and providers may not have the money to quickly ramp up spend- ing to do more data collection and analysis. Surely, though, there is room in Oregon’s health care system to save money and improve quality. There are too many perverse incentives driven by the fee-for-service model. It can drive provid- ers to do more tests, for instance, because more tests mean more revenue. Instead, the committee wants Oregon to move in the direction of a payment model that bundles payments for treating groups of patients. That transformation may be the biggest benefi t of Oregon’s pursuit of a cap. The White House and slavery “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” — First Lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in August 2016. Last month during the Republican National Convention on the White House lawn, President Trump, turn- ing from the microphone and tele- prompters to face the edifi ce looming behind him, spread his arms wide and admired his “house,” his “home.” Unlike former First Lady Obama, Trump did not muse about slaves who constructed and lived in that magnifi cent structure. In a couple minutes of online search- ing, I found the website www.white- househistory.org, which is maintained by the White House Historical Asso- ciation, where there is this introduc- tion: “Many people think of the White House as a symbol of democracy, but it also embodies America’s complicated past and the paradoxical relationship between slavery and freedom in the nation’s capital.” The website has an alphabetical list of 204 slaves: “Enslaved People Building the White House and Capitol Building (1792-1800).” First on the list is “Abraham (hired out by James H. Blake)” and last on the list “William (hired out by Elizabeth Thomas).” Not one of the slaves has a last name. What was important for record-keeping was the name of the owner to whom the federal government paid for the slave’s labor. GARY DIELMAN The website also has lists of slaves who worked in presidential households. Following is just the number of slaves serving presidents George Washington through Zachary Taylor, plus term in offi ce: • George Washington, 10 slaves (1789-1797) • Thomas Jefferson,11 slaves (1801-1809) • James Madison, 6 slaves (1809-1817) • James Monroe, 13 slaves (1817-1825) • John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829: 2 slaves (1825-1829) • Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837 - 9 slaves (1829-1837) • Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841 - 4 slaves (1837-1841) • John Tyler, 4 slaves (1841-1844) • James K. Polk, 4 slaves (1845-1849) • Zachary Taylor, 11 slaves (1849-1950) There’s also this list: “Enslaved Workers on the White House Grounds (1818-1821).” On the list are names of 31 slaves and their owners, who re- ceived federal compensation for renting their slaves to the government. One of those slaves was Peter, a pickax worker, who helped clear the rough land for La- fayette Square, part of today’s National Park system. “Picker” Peter had been hired out by slave owner Thomas Mur- ray, who pocketed the money earned by Peter’s labor. Lafayette Square, which lies adja- cent to the White House rose garden, recently received worldwide attention. On June 1 it was fi lled with peace- ful Black Lives Matter protesters, who unknowingly stood in the way of President Trump’s plan to march with his cabinet offi cers and other offi cials across Lafayette Square for a photo-op in front of nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church, whose parish house had on May 31 suffered minor damage from an arson fi re allegedly set by Black Lives Matter protesters. Peaceful or not, the marchers in La- fayette Square were a problem. Before President Trump and other govern- ment offi cials marched to the church, law enforcement troops throwing tear gas and fi ring rubber bullets force- fully pushed out of Lafayette Square the protesters who by all accounts were peacefully gathered. Standing shortly thereafter in front of St. John’s Church, President Trump held aloft a Bible playing to the cameras but without saying a word. And no doubt not knowing the role of Black slaves in the construction of Lafayette Square or of the White House or of the Capitol building. The photo-op was universally lampooned. Gary Dielman lives in Baker City. OTHER VIEWS Editorial from Bloomberg Opinion: California’s wildfi re season is off to a brutal start. Through August, this year already ranks as the second most destructive in the state’s history, with more than 1.6 million acres burned. Sparked by lightning strikes and record heat, fi res in Northern California have destroyed thousands of structures, wrecked air quality in the San Francis- co Bay Area and carried smoke plumes as far away as Nebraska. With hot, dry weather likely to persist until Novem- ber, the worst may be yet to come. Looking farther ahead, the picture does not improve. As climate change worsens, wildfi res are growing in number, scale and duration across the American West, overwhelming local fi refi ghting capacities and putting property and lives in peril. Since 2017, fi res have consumed more than 20 million acres of land and caused at least $50 billion in economic losses. The U.S. needs a coherent national strategy to address the threat. New resources, including extra staff, are essential if fi res are to be fought more effectively. But prevention mat- Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald. Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the Baker City Herald. ters as well. Addressing climate change is vital, but other kinds of mitigation are possible too. These could do a lot for little or no net outlay — $1 spent on fi re prevention is estimated to save $3 in costs — and deserve to be taken much more seriously. The fi rst task is bolstering the supply of trained fi refi ghters. In January, Cali- fornia Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $120 million initiative to hire more than 650 new staff, including more than 400 front-line fi refi ghters, over the next fi ve years at Cal Fire, the state’s fi refi ghting agency. Due to the fi nancial strain caused by the coronavirus, that funding was cut by one-third in the budget Newsom eventually signed. Firefi ghting teams are also getting less help from volunteer prison inmates, thousands of whom typically work as fi refi ghters, but whose numbers have been reduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in prisons. To meet staffi ng needs, Western states like California should offer bo- nuses for seasonal fi refi ghters and offer full-time employment for those who serve on the front lines. Former prison- ers who’ve received fi refi ghting training while incarcerated should be allowed to apply for full-time jobs after they serve their time, as proposed in a bill passed by California’s Legislature. The federal government, which owns and manages 30% of the country’s forest lands, should work with states to fi ll existing federal fi refi ghter vacancies. Much of the billions of dollars the federal government spends on anti- wildfi re measures goes toward fi ghting fi res after they break out. A smarter approach would spend more on forest management, by conducting controlled burns and clearing vegetation during the off-season. Congress should pass legislation sponsored by California Sen. Kamala Harris to help vulnerable communities improve their defenses. Over the longer term, a corps of skilled workers could help state and local au- thorities strengthen fi re resilience and restore healthy forest ecosystems. At a time of trillion-dollar defi cits, spending more on wildfi re mitigation may seem like a tall order. It shouldn’t be, for the simple reason that the costs of inaction are greater. CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS President Donald Trump: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1414; fax 202-456-2461; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov/contact. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. offi ce: 313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland offi ce: One World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City offi ce, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541- 278-1129; merkley.senate.gov. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541- 962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd District): D.C. offi ce: 2182 Rayburn Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202- 225-5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211 Washington Ave., La Grande, OR 97850; 541-624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house.gov. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov. State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem offi ce: 900 Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen. LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem offi ce: 900 Court St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep. MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers. Loran Joseph, Randy Schiewe, Lynette Perry, Arvid Andersen, Larry Morrison, Jason Spriet and Doni Bruland. Baker City administration: 541-523-6541. Fred Warner Jr., city manager; Ray Duman, police chief; Sean Lee, interim fi re chief; Michelle Owen, public works director. Baker County Commission: Baker County Courthouse 1995 3rd St., Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-8200. Meets the fi rst and third Wednesdays at 9 a.m.; Bill Harvey (chair), Mark Bennett, Bruce Nichols.
