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Hope for Oregon Families: An initiative for a constitutional amendment improving access to health care.
Representative Mitch Greenlick is a second term legislator representing NW Portland and portions of unincorporated Multnomah & Washington counties.
Last week, I stood along side State Senators Alan Bates and Ben Westlund and a coalition of seniors groups, health care providers, labor and human services advocates, to announce an initiative campaign for a constitutional amendment. The HOPE for Oregon Families amendment would require the Legislature to adopt a plan to both strengthen and conserve Oregon’s existing health care system and provide health care opportunities for Oregon’s uninsured.
I believe we can no longer tolerate leaving 600,000 Oregonians without access to health care. Each of us knows an uninsured family devastated by a medical emergency. For those of us with adequate health care, this amendment would require little change There is no new tax in this amendment. It only charges the Legislature to develop a practical and incremental plan to provide coverage for the 17% of Oregonians, over 600,000 in all, who live today without any coverage at all.
The amendment adds Section 46 to Article 1 of the Oregon Constitution: Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for the state to ensure that every Oregon resident has access to effective and affordable health care as a fundamental right.
BASIC PRINCIPLES INCLUDED IN THE HOPE INITIATIVE:
· Conserve and strengthen the existing health care system to the greatest extent possible;
· Conserve and strengthen the existing system of providing health insurance as a benefit of employment;
· Encourage individual responsibility for one’s own health care;
· Maximize the use of Medicaid, Medicare and other federal health care programs;
· Encourage the efficient and effective use of health care expenditures; and
· Improve the health of every Oregon resident.
I have filed a petition for the HOPE FOR OREGON FAMILIES initiative, and we plan to have it on the ballot next fall.
June 1, 2005 by Mitch Greenlick
Permalink: Hope for Oregon Families: An initiative for a constitutional amendment improving access to health care.
Comments
Amending our state constitution is serious business. Although many Oregonians may share your sentiment, it seems hardly necessary to add access to health care as a fundamental right embodied in our state constitution. Setting aside what it means to be constitutionally "effective" or "affordable," should we be requiring the state to spread its already limited resources to providing access to effective and affordable health care or be in dereliction of the constitution? As legislators who know what it is like to make the tough decisions of where to apply limited resources, and with a climate that does not look favorably on expanding the resource pie or to make the scarifies necessary to fund all of the existing programs that our tax dollars fund (from K-12 and higher education, to regulatory boards and public safety, to investment in our infrastructure, to funding the Oregon Health Plan, et cetera) why would we add just another unfunded mandate so that state must constitutionally provide access to health care?
Although access to health care can (and should) be a high priority for each legislative session, amending our state constitution appears to be a misguided effort with potentially disastrous long-term effects.
Posted by: visitor | Jun 10, 2005 7:47:45 PM
Clarification: In my earlier comment, I posed a question: As legislators who know what it is like to make the tough decisions of where to apply limited resources, and with a climate that does not look favorably on expanding the resource pie or to make the scarifies necessary to fund all of the existing programs that our tax dollars fund (from K-12 and higher education, to regulatory boards and public safety, to investment in our infrastructure, to funding the Oregon Health Plan, et cetera) why would we add just another unfunded mandate so that state must constitutionally provide access to health care?
I visited the blog today to see if any comments appeared, but in re-reading that part of my comment, it appears that I am speaking as a legislator when I used the term "we." I am not a legislator, nor am I part of the legislative branch of government.
What I meant to say is that "As legislator who know what it is like to make the tough decisions of where to apply limited resources * * * why would _you want to_ add just another unfunded mandate * * *?"
I apologize for any confusion.
Posted by: visitor | Jun 13, 2005 7:06:05 PM
In 1859 our constitution was drafted to include we would have a common system of schools. That is a value statement and a goal. It took decades to get close to a common system of schools. We have now reached where the health care crisis is affecting all of us and it is time to put the same kind of value statement and goal into the constitution. And I recognize it is a serious business. I intend it seriously.
Health care costs are skyrocketing at the same time the % of Oregonians covered my health care is dropping alarmingly. And we are paying for the terrible health care that is received by people without coverage. It is both too late and too expensive and is being cost-shifted to those of us that are covered under employment.
I believe that if the legislature was given the task of creating an incremental play to improve access to health care and to find ways to pay for the improved coverage through more effective and efficient ways to deliver care we could move forward. 83% of Oregonians have access to health care. It's only 17% (600,000) who don't. I believe it is possible to solve the problem for those people without large increases in cost to the health care system. For example, we currently leave $1-2 billion on the table in Medicaid funds. Each billion represents 30,000 jobs. We need to move that money to Oregon to cover care and produce new tax revenue. We need to find ways to create incentives for small business to move their coverage from 60% closer to 100 %. We need to bring our creativity to the table to solve the problem. But we need the will to do so, and that is what HOPE for ORegon Families can produce.
Mitch
Posted by: Mitch Greenlick | Jun 14, 2005 4:27:51 PM
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