A2 The BulleTin • Thursday, July 21, 2022
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Report: Health care costs in
Oregon rose 49% from 2013-19
Rising prescription
drug prices drove
much of the increase
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NEWSROOM FAX
BY HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
Oregonians’ health care
costs rose 49% over a six-
year period, with the increase
largely driven by a huge jump
in drug prices, according to a
new state report.
Prescription pharmaceuti-
cal costs “grew the most of any
service category from 2013 to
2019, driven by a 20% annual
growth in Medicare” drug
costs, according to the report
issued by the Oregon Health
Authority.
Prescription drug costs
rose 185% over the six-year
period for patients on Medi-
care to more than $2,200 per
person, annually. Prescrip-
tion drug costs rose 92.8%
for people with commer-
cial insurance and 79.4% for
those on Medicaid, according
to the state.
Inpatient care remained
the most expensive category
of health care in Oregon, but
prescription drug costs sur-
passed per-person outpatient
care costs in 2018 to become
the third-most costly service,
according to the state.
Last year, lawmakers in the
Democratically controlled Or-
egon Legislature considered a
proposal to set upper limits on
how much companies could
charge for prescription drugs,
but ultimately gutted the plan
after the pharmaceutical in-
dustry spent nearly $2 million
lobbying against it. Lawmak-
ers did pass a bipartisan law to
limit patients’ copays for insu-
lin to $900 a year.
After prescription drug
costs, the category of profes-
sional services, which covers
primary care visits and med-
ical procedures at doctors’
offices, was the second major
driver of increasing health
care costs, according to the
state. Those costs increased
75.9% for people with com-
mercial insurance, 56.7% for
patients on Medicare and
41.8% for people with Med-
icaid.
Oregon is tracking health
care costs by sector as part of
an effort to rein in the growth
of health care expenses to a
sustainable level. Although
the report did not identify a
sustainable rate of health care
cost increases, the authors
noted that health care costs
have outpaced growth of
wages and the overall econ-
omy in Oregon. In 2019, Ore-
gon families with commercial
health insurance paid an av-
erage of $9,038 for their in-
surance premium shares and
deductibles.
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OUR ADDRESS
CREWS STOP BRUSH FIRE AT CROOKED RIVER RANCH
Street .............. 320 sW upper Terrace drive
suite 200
Bend, Or 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
Bend, Or 97708
B
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Photo courtesy Crooked river ranch Fire and rescue
The fire destroyed a lumber pile located near a residence on SW Peninsula Drive in Crooked River Ranch.
Bulletin staff report
F
ire crews stopped a brush fire Tues-
day afternoon that threatened nu-
merous homes in Crooked River
Ranch near the intersection of SW Cinder
and SW Peninsula drives.
According to Crooked River Ranch
Fire and Rescue, the blaze was burning in
grass, brush and juniper trees near sev-
eral residences, eventually reaching sev-
eral stacks of lumber and a horse trailer
outside a home in the 12600 block of SW
Cinder. The fire, which was first reported
about 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, was declared
contained at about one-third of an acre
about 30 minutes later. Crews remained
on-scene mopping up and building fire
lines around hot spots until nearly 6 p.m.,
according to the fire department.
Six engines and 17 firefighters re-
sponded, including mutual aid from Red-
mond Fire & Rescue, the Bureau of Land
Management, Oregon State Fire Marshal’s
Office and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Of-
fice.
The cause of the fire is under investi-
gation.
Portland
settles
excessive
force suit
associated Press
The city of Portland has
paid $55,000 to two inde-
pendent journalists who
alleged excessive force by
Portland police during a
2020 Black Lives Matter
demonstration.
An investigation after
their lawsuit was filed de-
termined the city risked be-
ing found liable, so the City
Council opted for an emer-
gency ordinance to avoid a
jury trial, The Oregonian
reported. The money for
the settlement, which com-
pensates the reporters for
injuries, will come from the
city’s Insurance and Claims
Fund.
Cory Elia and Lesley
McLam were contribut-
ing to Village Portland and
KBOO Community Radio
when they were arrested
while live-streaming a pro-
test.
After police deployed
tear gas into the crowd, Elia
was forced to the ground
by at least four officers and
McLam, who was trying to
take Elia’s phone and press
pass for him, was tackled
by police, according to the
lawsuit.
In the suit, Elia said he
suffered breathing dif-
ficulty from heightened
asthma symptoms because
of tear gas, a head injury
and other maladies.
Elia said in a statement
that he filed the lawsuit
“because the suppressive
tactics used by the po-
lice to silence journalists
is not only a violation of
the First Amendment, but
an attack on the public’s
right to be informed of
the injustices happening
in their own community
at the hands of those who
are sworn to ‘protect and
serve.’”
The lawsuit filed in July
2020 demanded $1 million
from the city. It named two
“John Doe” officers as de-
fendants, as well as officers
John Bartlett and Michelle
Petty.
Portland paid $335,000
in 2021 to settle protest-re-
lated lawsuits involving
police, according to city
records.
REDMOND BUREAU
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, Or 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
Tigard man dies after being shot in road-rage incident
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Father of 3 was
driving home from
trip to Oregon Coast
BY ZAEEM SHAIKH
The Oregonian
A Tigard man died
Wednesday after being shot
and killed on state Highway
18 northeast of Otis in a sus-
pected road-rage incident.
Dennis Anderson, 45, was
with his partner of 18 years,
Brandy Goldsbury, on a day
trip to Lincoln City after a
week of COVID-19 quaran-
tine. They were headed back
to their Tigard home around
8:30 p.m. on July 13 when they
noticed a driver in a car try-
ing to pass them, said Golds-
bury, 46.
Goldsbury, who has worked
as a medical assistant at Ore-
gon Health & Science Univer-
sity, said Anderson sprayed
wiper fluid on his windshield
while driving and some of the
fluid may have gotten on the
other driver’s car.
“I was just like ‘ignore him,
he’s having a bad day,’” she
said.
The car — which police
identified Tuesday as a BMW
3 Series — eventually passed,
Goldsbury said, and she be-
lieved it was gone. A few miles
later, however, they arrived at
a rest area northeast of Otis
where Goldsbury said they
saw the same car parked on
the side of the road.
“We drove by it, and then
it got behind us,” Goldsbury
said. “And then when the lanes
started to turn to one again,
the car started driving really
close to the back of us almost
like it was going to hit us. And
then it would go into oncom-
ing traffic and kind of swerve
towards us, like trying to push
us to the side of the forest.”
She told Anderson to pull
over and call 911. He did. He
also got out of the car while
Goldsbury dialed, she said.
That’s when the driver of
the other car stopped parallel
to them and started shooting
into the car, she said. “The last
thing that he said was, ‘Oh my
god, they shot me.’” Goldsbury
said.
After several shots, Golds-
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bury unbuckled her seat belt
and flagged down passing cars
for help.
Police, as of Tuesday, have
not made any arrests. They
said the driver fled.
Oregon State Police de-
scribed the suspect as a short,
less-than-25-year-old man
with dark hair.
Anderson had two teenage
daughters and an adult step-
son.
“He’s one of those pushover
dads,” Goldsbury said. “They
would ask for something ab-
solutely outrageous, and he
would be like ‘no’ and then I
would turn around and he’d
be doing it, making it happen
for them.”