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The
The INDEPENDENT, July 5, 2012
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month
by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St.,
Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Deadline is noon the Friday before each issue.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
Does the court’s decision
on health care affect you?
The Supreme Court has upheld the federal health
care law, (Affordable Care Act or Obamacare), keeping
the requirement that individuals get insurance. The
justices also gave states the right to opt out of a provi-
sion requiring them to expand Medicaid programs for
the poor and disabled.
The decision will affect consumers, state officials,
employers and health care providers.
Some of the key features don’t kick in until 2014,
some are now in place, and others are being imple-
mented early by many plans. The law has already al-
tered the health care industry and established a num-
ber of consumer benefits.
• Health plans can’t cancel your coverage once you
get sick, unless you committed fraud when you applied
for coverage, and “lifetime” limits no longer apply.
• Children with pre-existing conditions cannot be de-
nied coverage. This will apply to adults in 2014.
• You are likely to be eligible for preventive services
such as breast cancer screenings and cholesterol
tests at no additional charge.
• Most plans already ban lifetime limits and allow
adult children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’
health plan.
• Insurers that spend less than 80 to 85 percent of
premium dollars on medical care will have to provide
rebates to consumers.
• Consumers may keep the plans they already have,
and employers don’t have to change plans, unless
they want to do so.
The element that concerns many people is the man-
date that people buy health insurance. Beginning in
2014, most people will have to have it or pay a penal-
ty. For individuals, that penalty starts at $95 a year, or
up to one percent of income, whichever is greater, and
increases to $695, or 2.5 percent of income, by 2016.
For families, by 2016 the penalty would be $2,085 or
2.5 percent of household income, whichever is greater.
Coverage can be waived for several reasons, including
financial hardship or religious beliefs.
This is a very small part of a very large law, so we
will continue with information on the mandate, employ-
er plans and Medicaid, in a future Opinion.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League
From the reports I’ve
received, the Nehalem
River continues to pro-
duce a top-notch cut-
throat trout fishery in our
local area. The fishing
also has continued to be
very good way past the
opener in May and a lot
of the credit is most like-
ly due to the higher water levels this year. I
guess this is one of the benefits from the wet
spring and summer we are experiencing this
year. The Nehalem River is running once again
near record levels for this time of year, with the
Foss gauge reading only 20 CFS shy of the
1942 record of 1080 CFS when I wrote this arti-
cle. Not only is this great for the trout fishery, it is
great for the out migration of smolts, which
should be down at the estuary by now, and the
local juvenile populations of salmonids that are
dispersing from their places of birth.
Dad and I once again headed to the Snake
River for our annual crappie fishing trip, but this
year was a disappointment. The crappie fishing
was poor, in fact it was lousy. It appeared that
the fish simply were not there this year. We did
locate a few areas with some fish, but it seemed
there were only a few biters in each group. We
actually caught just about as many perch and
bluegills as we did crappie. Now the catfishing
was very good, but the problem was having what
we call good bait. We have always done the best
using crappie guts and this year was no excep-
tion; when we had good bait we were catching
catfish fast and furious. When that bait ran out
and we tried crappie ribs and other assorted
parts, the fishing dropped right off. The high-
lights of the trip were seeing five bears on the
first day at the reservoir, and watching the Idaho
Power line crew take down high tension power
lines and splice in a couple of new sections in
the line with explosives, now that is something
you don’t see everyday.
The controlled hunt draws are out and you
probably have seen quite a few guys and gals
walking glumly around town. Our party did draw
an Eastern Oregon deer tag and we can only
hope we chose wisely in regards to the unit we
selected. Of course nobody that I know got lucky
and drew a special tag like a sheep, goat or an-
telope tag. It is really sad to see how the tradi-
tion of hunting east for deer has all but gone
away, with the good units (relative to the bad
units) becoming a four-point draw and the bad
units becoming mainly a camping trip. This sim-
ply has gutted the bond that held hunting parties
together, and through which the hunting tradition
was handed down to our youth.
ODF&W has tried to promote youth hunting
through the issuance of antlerless tags to make
the hunting easier, yet this is only a false prom-
ise. As the youth graduate into the adult ranks of
hunters and these easy hunts are all but gone,
they are faced with the same reality the rest of
us share: too many years between tags and
poor opportunity. What ODF&W doesn’t seem to
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