Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Ex-Gov advocates single payer health plan for Oregon
Our health care situation is a mess, as everyone knows. In the U.S. more money is spent on health care than in any other industrialized nation. However, our infant mortality rate, life-spans, and other health indicators aren’t at the tops of the lists. We’re steadily falling behind.
Oregon’s ex-gov, John Kitzhaber is advocating a single-payer system. At least for Oregon. It’s inevitable that we go to one on a national level, assuming the country will gradually more forward into the 20th Century when it comes to social services.
The Republicans, true to their intellectual morbidity, are still against universal health care. Their lives, they think, would be easier without poor people...except for those doing low-paid work....
Kitzhaber health ideas called a tough sell
1/10/2006, 9:16 a.m. PT
The Associated Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/healthfit/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1136865315117000.xml&coll=7
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Former Gov. John Kitzhaber's proposal for providing government-paid health care to all Oregonians is being praised by some for its boldness but criticized by others as being unrealistic.
Kitzhaber's plan would scrap Medicare and Medicaid in Oregon as well as the tax break that employers get for insuring workers. He would replace them with a basic, government-paid policy for every resident, and then allow people to buy additional coverage in the private market.
Critics and some Kitzhaber allies say the idea is a tough sell, The Oregonian reported Tuesday.
"I believe it would be easier to legislate that the sun should rise in Oregon and set in New York," said Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Kitzhaber's health care brainstorming comes as he is considering a run for a third term as governor on a platform that would consist of his health care plan.
If he runs, he would take on fellow Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski in a primary battle.
On Monday, Kulongoski said he is "very supportive of the former governor's position that this country needs a national health care plan."
"I think he can best achieve that outside the governor's office, so no one ever accuses it of being a political solution," the governor said.
To accomplish his plan, Kitzhaber says, the federal government would have to give Oregon unusual flexibility in the form of waivers from requirements under federal Medicare and Medicaid laws. The state would use that flexibility to pool all public dollars spent on health care — estimated at $6.4 billion a year — to pay for basic universal coverage.
"When you take on Medicare — politically, I just don't see that happening," said Jim Kronenberg, chief operating officer of the Oregon Medical Association.
Kitzhaber's plan would go even further, challenging the tax break for employers providing health insurance to workers. That risks opposition from small businesses, large employers and unions.
"Medical reform is one of the heaviest lifts in Washington, D.C.," said Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who recently battled his own party caucus over potential cuts to Medicaid.
The Kitzhaber plan is "a clever proposal to provoke a conversation we need to have," said Len Nichols, director of health policy at the New America Foundation, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "Whether it's politically feasible is another matter."
"What's brilliant about it is that it puts into one place the idea that we're all in this together," said Nichols.
"However you want to paint it, he's talking about a single-payer system," said Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, vice chairman of two health committees during the last legislative session. "The only way that works is if we turn all health care over to the government."
"I personally think that's a disastrous road to go down," he said.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Oregon’s ex-gov, John Kitzhaber is advocating a single-payer system. At least for Oregon. It’s inevitable that we go to one on a national level, assuming the country will gradually more forward into the 20th Century when it comes to social services.
The Republicans, true to their intellectual morbidity, are still against universal health care. Their lives, they think, would be easier without poor people...except for those doing low-paid work....
Kitzhaber health ideas called a tough sell
1/10/2006, 9:16 a.m. PT
The Associated Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/healthfit/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1136865315117000.xml&coll=7
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Former Gov. John Kitzhaber's proposal for providing government-paid health care to all Oregonians is being praised by some for its boldness but criticized by others as being unrealistic.
Kitzhaber's plan would scrap Medicare and Medicaid in Oregon as well as the tax break that employers get for insuring workers. He would replace them with a basic, government-paid policy for every resident, and then allow people to buy additional coverage in the private market.
Critics and some Kitzhaber allies say the idea is a tough sell, The Oregonian reported Tuesday.
"I believe it would be easier to legislate that the sun should rise in Oregon and set in New York," said Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Kitzhaber's health care brainstorming comes as he is considering a run for a third term as governor on a platform that would consist of his health care plan.
If he runs, he would take on fellow Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski in a primary battle.
On Monday, Kulongoski said he is "very supportive of the former governor's position that this country needs a national health care plan."
"I think he can best achieve that outside the governor's office, so no one ever accuses it of being a political solution," the governor said.
To accomplish his plan, Kitzhaber says, the federal government would have to give Oregon unusual flexibility in the form of waivers from requirements under federal Medicare and Medicaid laws. The state would use that flexibility to pool all public dollars spent on health care — estimated at $6.4 billion a year — to pay for basic universal coverage.
"When you take on Medicare — politically, I just don't see that happening," said Jim Kronenberg, chief operating officer of the Oregon Medical Association.
Kitzhaber's plan would go even further, challenging the tax break for employers providing health insurance to workers. That risks opposition from small businesses, large employers and unions.
"Medical reform is one of the heaviest lifts in Washington, D.C.," said Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who recently battled his own party caucus over potential cuts to Medicaid.
The Kitzhaber plan is "a clever proposal to provoke a conversation we need to have," said Len Nichols, director of health policy at the New America Foundation, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "Whether it's politically feasible is another matter."
"What's brilliant about it is that it puts into one place the idea that we're all in this together," said Nichols.
"However you want to paint it, he's talking about a single-payer system," said Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, vice chairman of two health committees during the last legislative session. "The only way that works is if we turn all health care over to the government."
"I personally think that's a disastrous road to go down," he said.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
