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It's been nearly a year since President Obama signed hard fought health care legislation into law. One of the key components of the federal legislation is a mandate for states to set up health insurance exchanges. That's what Senate Bill 99 in the Oregon legislature would do. It's one part of the overall plan that the newly created Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is pushing for, and the state recently won a $48 million grant to do it.
Some of the bills working their way through the state capitol deal with keeping health insurance rates down. And there's an single payer bill that has garnered a lot of enthusiasm even though its sponsor, Mike Dembrow, says it's going nowhere this session.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority has been convening a group that is taking on nothing less than the transformation of the health care system in the state. The idea is to bring the cost of care down while making sure all Oregonians have access to health care. OHA director Bruce Goldberg says in order to do that the state needs to make a major economic and cultural shift.
One pilot program that could be pointing the way is in Lebanon. Dr. Rick Wopat runs the Samaritan Lebanon Medical Home, where a team of providers cares for patients and the idea is to save money by keeping them healthy, rather than simply treating them when they are sick. Wopat says the project's just getting started but he's optimistic about its future.
Are you happy with your health care coverage? What do you need that you're not getting? Is your health care affordable? Is it comprehensive? What changes to the health care system would you like to see in Oregon?
GUESTS:
- Bruce Goldberg: Director of the Oregon Health Authority
- Eileen Brady: Member of the Oregon Health Policy Board
- Rick Wopat: Doctor at the Samaritan Lebanon Medical Home
- Martin Taylor: Public Policy Director for Care Oregon
Tagged as: health · oregon health plan · public health
Photo credit: Chapendra / Creative Commons
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I still don't understand why so many people seem to be getting their panties in a bunch over the idea of a single-payer health care system. If it works well in Canada, Japan, the U.K., and much of Europe, then why do some people seem to think it won't work here? We have learned over the past couple of years, throughout this debate, that Medicare is far and away more efficient than any of the for-profit health insurance companies. If it is efficient enough for my grandparents and your grandparents, then what makes so many people think that it is the exactly wrong way to go? Why CAN'T we extend Medicare to all age brackets. Maybe it would be easier if we lowered the eligibility age by five-year steps once a year. (So we lower the eligibility to 60 as of July 1, 2011, then to 55 as of July 1, 2012, to 50 as of July 1, 2013, etc. This way, the system isn't inundated by 140 million (a guesstimate) people all at once.)
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I'll take the Swiss, German, French or Finnish healthcare systems, but please don't stick me with the one they have in the UK or Canada. I don't want to have to wait that long for treatment and I don't want an arbitrary government bureaucracy deciding which drug's are appropriate/not-appropriate for my illness. Example: if NICE, Britain's clinical body that decides (can involve age, expected life extension and contribution during extended life) that a particular drug for your cancer treatment isn't cost effective, you're SOL... nice.
Admittedly here it's not much better when people are priced out of treatment options... but personally I'd rather be faced with a funding problem than a faceless, namesless bureaucrat.
As to whether medicare is good enough for my parents... as long as you're willing to fight for your treatment options... agreed.
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Yes, I always thought that, I am happy with my health care coverage. doing yoga, diet control, etc... by doing these things. But these are not enough. Still I am facing problem. I doing so much work to reduce my weight and fat. But no use. How can I get control on this? and Thyroid also. I am taking medicines also. Is there any permanent solution for this? Please help me. Thanks in advance.
California Lemon Law
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I am a small business owner in Portland. My medical insurance premiums, alone, this year are $548 per month ($6,576 for the year). I also have a $750 deductible I must meet before my insurance will reimburse for services. Next year, when I turn 50, my premiums will automatically increase to approximately $700 per month. Because I was diagnosed with melanoma in 2002, I have no choice but to enroll with the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool (OMIP); insurance on the open market either refuses to cover me or would charge me a greater monthly premium than OMIP. Although I still see a physician twice a year for checkups (which keeps me stuck with the “preexisting condition” status) I’ve been symptom free for nine years. When are we going to stop this insanity! We need a single payer system like the civilized world has so Americans (both individuals and the society at large) are not bankrupted by healthcare costs. Let’s lead the nation and bring single payer healthcare to Oregon!
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Imagine Oregon leading the way for the rest of the nation with a statewide Medicare for All system!
Any Portlander who'd like to sample such a system for themselves, just drive 300 miles north to Vancouver, BC. Even without a Canadian health care card, you can see a doctor at a local clinic for $50. And on the other side of the border, prescriptions cost a third to a quarter of the U.S. price.
Don't imagine that such a change would be easy, though. The insurance companies that currently dictate everything - from the treatment we can receive to the price we pay for it - will pour millions of your premium dollars into attack advertising in order to retain the current system. But with the insurance execs out of the equation, we could eliminate fully 25% of our health care costs, cover every citizen regardless of income or employment status, and fund the preventive care that everyone wants.
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DouginNEpdx:
If you've been syptom-free for 9 years, you might be able to apply to another insurance company and get cheaper insurance, because you're required to confess to pre-existing conditions within only the last 5 years.
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I also cannot grasp why so many in this country are against a single payer system! It sure works well (maybe not perfectly but a whole lot better than what we have in this country these days). Couple comments: first if all you are paying is $700 count yourself lucky if broke and continually blindsided by what you find after the fact that the ins co won't pay; in my age group with pre-existings the cheapest I can find is now 1275/month with a $5K deductible you heard me 5K deductible. And second comment: saw a great bumper sticker yesterday which says I have the GOP faith-based health plan called "pray you don't get sick." Doesn't that say it all about the political situation using people's very lives as chess pawns in the struggle to be political top dog! Finally as an example of what reasonable people are thinking about health care/coverage versus what the unreasonable majority is thinking about it, an acquaintance of mine said in response to being told the statistic about what percentage of the population dies young for lack of health care/coverage she stated: "that is their CHOICE." Excuse me, where is the "choice" there? That in a nutshell describes what happens with the progress toward extreme right wing/uncontrolled capitalism/make money regardless - there is no more morality, no more ethics, and we are evolving backwards in our humanity.
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I appreciate your comment and you sound like you don't live in Oregon. If you do you would get a better premium rate with OMIP. I'm very thankful for OMIP and the day may come when I can't afford that.
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DouginNEpdx yes I do live in Oregon. I don't make enough money to pay rent and buy groceries on the same paycheck however I was told that I "make too much money" to qualify for the plan you are talking about. Also if I DID "qualify" and paid the premium I would be still in the position of living on the street because that payment represents my rent and utilities. If you haven't heard about the "catch22" that goes on with lower middle class/lower class bordering on poverty class, that catch22 of health coverage is exactly why so many people were against mandated health insurance purchases: you don't make enough money to pay for health insurance, your high-income employer is too busy spending money on him/herself to pay employee benefits, and yet you are "too rich" to qualify for lower-income health coverage. This is such a widespread problem and it has never been fully addressed.
Calemonlaw - what you are experiencing is that Great American Pastime called "victim blaming." It goes something like this. Those with money/in power/in control would have everyone believing that if you JUST LIVE RIGHT and DO EVERYTHING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO you will (1) be abundantly healthy and (2) basically be immortal. If you get sick or injured it is YOUR fault for NOT LIVING RIGHT and SURELY YOU MUST BE DOING BAD THINGS. This is a set-up-to-fail mindset which guarantees guiltlessness for the smug power-trippers who have all the "goods" e.g., money and power (and they have endless 'excuses' for why they themselves might have health problems but gee golly they sure have enough $$ to pay for any health issues). "Victim blaming" is a nasty little game which makes it easy for the status quo to remain in place and also very easy for those with money or in power to marginalize, even demonize those without money and without power.
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How will Medicare Advantage plans be affected by the new health care law?
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I am not satisfied with the current health care system and wholeheartedly support eventual expansion of the Single-Payer Medicaid System to all American citizens regardless of age.
A friend of mine was injured on a large construction project. There was an emergency in a confined space; and he was one of two workers sent in to do some emergency welding. There was inadequate fresh breathing air supply in the space; inadequate management of the emergency and both he and his partner inhaled a bunch of welding gases because they did not have access to the proper positive pressure respirators they should have been wearing. The emergency was rectified and both workers came out of the space hacking and nauseous.
The general contractor on the job gives out kickbacks...err... bonuses to the subcontractors that do not have any injuries; so my friend's boss told him to go home for the weekend and take care of himself and see how he felt on Monday. The boss promised him that he could get light duty on Monday if he was able to return to work. He was able to return to work but has been sick for 5 years now; because he can barely breath he does not get the excercise he needs and has been steadily gettin worse.
He will never have the lungs to chase a deer or a grandkid through the Oregon Forest again. He has to use a nebulizer to clear his lungs every day and various inhalers and pills to make it through work. His buddy is in the same boat.
Because of the complex system of health care and accident reporting in the work environment, and the bonus to the employer for no accidents; this injury was never reported to SAIF; a workmens comp claim was never filed, and my friend's Union Health Insurance is saddled with the entire cost of the treatment. Because my friend requires the health care of the Union he cannot retire. He loses a portion of his income to the union health care system in contract negotiations because the cost of health care is skyrocketing.
I guarantee this is a common practice in the workplace as. Workers especially construction workers, know that the squeaky wheel gets laid off at the end of the job and never rehired and that includes workers that demand the proper safety equipment.
This is also one of the factors that drives so much of the underground economy in Oregon as clients choose not to spend on contractors that insure worker safety all of the time; and concern themselves not just with the daily reports for major injuries to SAIF, but also lifetime well-being of their employees. Illegals do not report injuries nor do people working under the table.
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I think "unreporting" stuff contributes a lot to lack of health care and bad medicine. I've found that I must be careful what I tell the doctor, because the insurance company will eventually see the doctor's notes. And they will somehow use that information against me.
It's like you hear on the tv police shows: "anything you say, can and will be used against you..."
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My husband and I have been very frustrated with the healthcare system. When the job he was working on ended and he lost his health insurance we searched for a new provider. Cost was not really a consideration, we just wanted to have him on health insurance. But he got turned down because he was on a medication for high blood preasure and had seen a chyropractor for a work related back problem. Because of these health "issues" he was denied coverage.
We felt punished for the fact that he had been proactive in taking care of himself. Had he not been seeing a doctor regularly and being proactive about his health, had we not known about his high blood preasure and therefore not had to report that issue on the application, he probably would have been accepted.
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I work with adults with developmental disabilities in a Supported Living Program. Several of our clients would be classified as the ones who are extremely expensive in the health care system, going to the hospital several times a week or month. With the proposed budget cuts on Seniors & Adults with DD, we are looking at cuts in their funding, which in turn cuts the amount of support we can provide and will increase their medical crises. We are hoping the goverment will see the connection between these two, and how costs will inflate by cutting their service rates now.
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Bruce Goldberg seamed unable to answer emily's questions directly. I do not believe that I want a man that sounds so indecisive running anything
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We need to find a way for health-care itself, or for the specific medical services, to cost less. It is so tiresome to hear over and over again about all the irresponsible people allegedly costing everyone so much money. This is the primary cost-cutting method that everyone seems to talk about, it is generally represented as the entire problem. I understand the reasoning behind it, and that some of this kind of efficiency is necessary, but it is certainly not the whole problem, and probably not even half of the problem. I have to assume this focus is because many reformers work in the industry, and the industry doesn’t want to become more efficient or make less money, it just wants us to cost less. What about the hospitals, the doctors, the providers, the facilities, the drug companies---they are the people creating the bills, they are the people charging so much money in the first place? And, as many people have said on this blog we are not going to achieve anything substantive without a single-payer system. Our current healthcare legislation is only going to accomplish cost-cutting on the consumer’s end. It is not going to adequately address why services are so expensive.
And, of course the smug public loves this blame-the-irresponsible route, or blame the over-eaters, or blame the smokers. Even the liberals eat this nonsense up. We have exchanged one kind of moralism for another, and this moralism is even easier because we have statistics to back it up.
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One of the problems I see with healthcare is that, since somebody else pays the bill (insurance company), no one questions the health treatment. Patients and doctors don't know how much a proceedure or a perscription costs. So they just do it.
Patients don't ask, "Since I'm paying for this test, how will it help me?" Sometimes tests are done as "defensive medicine", or "we just always do that", whether or not it will help (or hurt!) the patient.
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Single payer would be ideal. Some people call it socialized medicine but that would seem to be common sense since we are a society. I'm a Veteran and have healthcare in the only true socialized medicine in America with the VA. The VA does a great job in controlling chronic conditions such as hypertenstion and diabetes. They are very transparent with their successes and failures (2010 VHA Facility Quality and Safety Report). I know what to expect with them and don't have to wait in huge lines for care. I think that the VA could be used as a model for Oregon. If the VA is good enough for the Veterans then it should be good enough for Oregonians.
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I work in health care as a provider who works with youth with chronic health conditions and have been frustrated by the layers of red tape that we must navigate to get authorization for services for those medicaid patients who need the services the most. While I am not a business person, I have to believe that there is a huge amount of waste that goes into managing these high need patients. The situation is Oregon is compounded by the fact that mental health and medical health are separate, thus this creates huge problems in providing integrated care.
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I agree with the points made by Ms. Brady and Dr. Goldberg, but I would like to emphasize that society will be successful in meeting the future health of our country when we provide quality care and control costs at the same time. For the latter, we will look back in 20-years, when we have achieved success, and realize that two factors were responsibile. First, there will be more health care providers who are salary based rather than fee-for-service based. Second, providers and institutions will be rewarded/compensated for outcomes rather than tests. If practice A has a lower rate of colon cancer and lower rate of amputatiions in their diabetic population than practice B, then, practice A will receive a higher level of compensation. No longer will colonoscopies (procedures) and tests (Hemoglobin A1c) be compensated as stand alones.
David A. Nardone, MD
Hillsboro, OR
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Why is preventative care talked about (and paid for) so little? From what I understand nearly 90% of diabetes is preventable with diet, exercise and a healthy weight and yet its a heavy burden not only on our healthcare system but our ecomomy and productivity. The US ranks quite low globally on general health and diet and yet we're focused solely on treating people after a problem presents instead of preventing the problem in the first place.
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I think a great place to start is rid the country of corn and soy subsidies therefore hopefully do away with HFCS and hydrogenated soybean oil. Let's subsidize vegetable anf fruit growers.
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I really hope that Oregon's health insurance exchange actually negotiates on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of consumers in the exchange so we can all get the same kind of deal that only huge employers can currently get. That is a huge way for the exchange to really benefit small businesses and consumers.
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New GMO foods have a lot more sugars in them and I wonder how much they contribute to the diabetes epidemic? Corn, peas, soybeans. tomatoes, beans, etc have all been engineered to be sweeter than before.
So is that genetically engineered contribution being studied?
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The most cogent comment heard this morning has to do with treating the whole person. A teacher works with the whole child and must work with all of the specialists in the classroom. And they receive a single fee for working with a group of people.
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Not all people get diabetes from bad habbits. I don't drink or smoke. I do exercise and eat healthy. I have diabetes because of a doctors prescription overdose of a medication. No fault of my own. So before people say that those with diabetes caused it them selves are not correct. We need health care just like everybody else does.
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Single payer system.
Prevention requires public education of self-care, how diet connects directly to health, and shopping/cooking.
Prevention will also require regulation of food industry promotions and advertising dollars.
All the rest is whistling in the dark.
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One of the guests on the show just stated that "everyone was to blame for the state of the health care system as it stands. Providers, doctors, patients, government, etc" I would like to hear him elaborate how the patients are to blame for the twisted system we are stuck in. Maybe they were complacent as the complicated web was woven around us, but otherwise it is my impression that it was doctors and regulators and insurance companies that wove this web
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Healthcare for profit is health care denied! We will never see a good healthcare system in this country. it is all driven by how much profit that private industry can make off the consumer. Insurance companies only care about profit not you and i. the Obama plan is nothing more than Wealthcare for private insurance companies. The big corporations that get us to eat fast food are the ones who are making us ill. the small business owners can't afford to hire people because of raising insurance costs. if the government had a single payer system more small employers could hire more people and that would help the economy.
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james477:
You are completely right. The problem is The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
The wealthy corporations are making money off health care and food service the way it is. Else why would they fight so hard to prevent changes? So they elect conservative (ie maintain the status quo) legislators to prevent change.
So, Obama can't make big changes, quickly. He has to placate the Conservatives while chipping away around the edges of "the mess we is in".
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The 2011 Oregon Legislative Assembly Will FAIL, Again, To Produce Comprehensive Health Care Reform To Address Oregon's Moral And Economic Health Care Crisis
There are three choices related to comprehensive health care legislation this session.
1. Support $700,000,000 in new taxes to pay for the IOU left on the table from the previous sessions' Billion dollar health care bill.
2. Support Single-Payer legislation recently sent to committees in the House and Senate.
3. Other? Includes the status quo. Asking public employees to contribute more to their health insurance benefits is NOT a comprehensive solution. Diddling with the size of the Oregon Health Plan is NOT a comprehensive solution. Piling more money on health care for children is NOT a comprehensive solution. Asking for any help or favors from the federal government is NOT a comprehensive solution to Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis.
All available evidence persuades me to write with confidence that there is no possibility that new taxes will be enacted to pay for the 700 million IOU nor is there a snowball's chance in hell that Single-Payer will ever come up for a vote on the House floor. Chances that either $700,000,000 in new taxes to pay for the languishing health care bill from previous sessions or a Single-Payer health care plan would be passed by either chamber much less both are zero to none.
There is no larger nor more important social and economic issue before the Oregon legislature than the health care of Oregonians which affects every individual and every public institution and every business in our state.
The profit oriented private health insurance industry must not be the model upon which a solution to Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis should be based. Oregon elected officials - public employees - voters and taxpayers must have EQUAL ACCESS to the SAME LEVEL of health care NOT a perpetuation of our current multitiered health insurance CLASS system.
Sadly, the 2011 Oregon legislature has already failed on this vital public policy issue. The rest is just a charade.
Richard Ellmyer
North Portland
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Say everyone gets all healthy by shopping at Food Front what difference is this going to make to the actual costs of healthcare? Well, insurance companies may have to put out less money for services, and they will make more money, but are they going to start lowering the rates? All these methods seem to address is how insurance companies can save money. But they don’t directly address the costs themselves. They simply put the burden of efficiency on the consumer.
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Whatever happened to "the good consumer"? How come we don't "shop around" for good health care prices? Why isn't there a "free market" in medicine?
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There is a free market in medicine and isn’t that one of the main problems with it? From the human side it is a necessity, but from the economic, business side, it is managed like a for-profit luxury. That intersection, is exactly, the problem. The inherent function of medicine is not one that works entirely well under a free market exactly because one cannot generally shop around for it, so the free market is, indeed, free to function as it likes, but we are not inherently free to have the luxury of shopping around for services that our lives might depend on. Essentially the economics of medicine are so free that they had the power to get rid of our choices, just like you can ‘democratically’ vote in a dictator. The characteristics of what medical care is, that it is a service, not a product, and what it means to us, inherently make it incompatible with a free unregulated market, because we are too desperately enslaved to going on living.
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Indeed, if you're is taken (unconscious) to an ER, they are required by law to at least make you stable, and you're not free to choose anything (since you're unconcious). But, then you do get a (big) bill, for services you couldn't choose, let alone shop around for.
Yes, that isn't a free market.
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I hope everyone will join me and Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation for our annual Health Care Symposium on Thursday, April 7 from 7am -930am at the Oregon Zoo's Vista Room!
We will be talking about all the of the points made today from the perspective of the "six P's" - health care purchasers, patients, payors, providers, policy makers and public health professionals!Guest speakers include Bruce Goldberg, Director of the Oregon Heatlh Authority; Joe Robertson, President of OHSU; Jack Friedman, Chief Executive of Providence Health Plan; Manuel Goty, Director of Global Benefits, Nike and more.
Visit www.virginiagarcia.org to learn more. Power to the informed!
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NO BAD APPLES ? Yikes - if I could charge $4,500 for a procedure (typically less than one hour duration) I could work a 20 hour week I could make $90k per week !!!! I'm not sure of your definition of a BAD APPLE - who would not want to abuse this medical billing machine to get rich ????!!!
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How will natural health care be affected in this new plan? I am a lifelong asthmatic. My primary care doctor is a naturopath and I regularly see an acupuncturist and chiropractor to stay healthy. I also see an allergist as needed. I am lucky to be able to choose the expensive plan at my employer that costs me about 10% of my annual income in co-pays and deductibles.
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In a patient centered system what do you see as the role of 1:1 patient advocates in supporting better–safer outcomes and reducing health care costs?
What kinds of complementary and holistic care options will become reimbursed under the proposed changes in Oregon coverage? -
Dr. Wopat from Lebanon should have elaborated on what could possibly happen to the example he listed (the diabetic young man) if they hadn't helped the young man get back on track. I personally know of a diabetic person who neglected taking his medicine and eventually had to have BOTH legs amputated. Now imagine if Dr. Wopat hadn't intervened, eventualy this young man might lose a leg; or something worse, like his eyesight. Then he would probably qualify for Social Security Disabililty and eventually Medicare (after a 2 year waiting period). Whereas, since they are helping him get back on track and get into college, he will hopefully become a tax-paying citizen. So I think in this potential scenario, we are saving A LOT more money in terms of this young man being on disability and medicare. True, at least on medicare he would get his healthcare, guaranteed, but the route he is on will make him a better person. If Dr. Wopat or his example reads this please pass this on to him: Good Luck with college and life!!
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Everything being said sounds so good, however no one is addressing the Gorilla in the room. As an RN who quit her job (after 20 years) because of the business restrictions to productive health care. I can be specific about the source of rising costs and poor care. The hospitals are the Insurance Companies. Their goal is to "make a prophet" not to make people healthy. When you look at all the prophets that go to management, it explains why costs are so high. These companies have NO business in health care at all. If the insurance companies were taken out of the equation there would be enough money to make health care work for everyone.
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I agree. Insurance companies add a lot of overhead to health care costs.
You probably know that just processing insurance claims paperwork costs more than $300 billion / year (yes, that's Billion with a 'B').
Have you seen the tv commercials that say you can make a career as an insurance claims processor? I talked to a doctor who said he had to spend 2 hrs/day dealing with insurance claims paperwork.
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Another way we can save money on the consumer’s end is by restricting coverage of non-evidence-based medicine. It is absurd to cover services that are not clinically shown to be effective. Perhaps, this is also part of the consumer’s irresponsibility that everyone likes to talk about, such as all these people who visit Naturopaths and Chiropractors. How did something as faith-based as religion ever manage to get covered under some insurance plans? This is not progress.
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"...restricting coverage of non-evidence based medicine". Isn't it already that way?
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No it is not, I believe, some plans will cover these services. I find it to be at odds, that many of the same people that advocate a moral responsibility for people to ‘get healthy’, also advocate alternative medicine that is often not evidenced-based. I think it sets a poor example and waters down the message---using science when it suits them, especially when it suits their ideology of blaming others, but then not applying the same scrutiny to their own actions, because they want to continue to believe in their own ironic myths.
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I think there should be a cut on health care costs. The premiums are just way too high for the average person.
Will
malpractice insurance premiums
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Health is not something you buy, it's something you do.
The medicalization of health, while useful in the acute sense, has not solved the problem of personal responsibility for healthy choices and lifestyle.
Improving mental health goes hand in hand with this, since mentally healthy people want to feel well.
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I am a healthcare practitioner since the last forty years. In short, due to the application of healthcare principles that I have researched, assimilated and applied during the last four decades of my life illness is virtually unknown to me. I have not spent one dollar on doctors or medications and I also have not had a headache, stomach ache, cold, flu, indigestion or any bodily discomfort. And the interesting point here is that I know exactly why. It amazes me that our healthcare system fights tooth and nail with the rising costs of healthcare yet fails to recognize that the application of very simple principles in ones lifestyle is all that is necessary. Science observes the human body in a very complex manner and in so doing arrives at the conclusion that the human body is complicated and in some ways they are right - the human body can be seen as complex however, from the standpoint of the individual robust health and vitality are simply waiting for us to adopt a simple, sober and healthy lifestyle. Period. It is not rocket science. We are actually doing ourselves to death in this free society where the majority of people continually create their own dis-ease. The human body will serve us in an honorable manner if we just stop abusing it. Discomfort in the body, and dis-ease symptoms, are quite simply the body attempting to carry-on a dialogue with us in regards to how we are interacting with it. Actually, creating dis-ease in our experience takes a lot of work and has much to do with our over-doing while creating an experience of vitality and health is the result of embracing what I refer to as the art of sobriety. This does not mean that we have to become saints, although I don't find this such a bad goal to strive towards, but it does mean that if we want to contribute to our own experience of wellness then we only need to stop doing ourselves to death. These simple principles are what need to be taught so that the burdon can be lifted from the shoulders of our healthcare system. And so that this country can rebuild itself one individual at a time. Let us also not forget that the application of these simple principles is not without its huge rewards. I believe we could agree that when we do not feel well - because we continuously over-burdon our bodies day in and day out - then our ability to function and to enjoy life is impaired for sure. On the other hand, by pursuing a lifestyle that embraces the art of sobriety our daily experience almost overnight becomes vibrant and alive. For me the choice is simple - just the way I like things.
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Comments are now closed.
Ideally I would like to see a national single-payer system (medicare for all) that covers everyone and decouples health insurance from employment but I know we are some time away from that so I do like to see incremental reforms like ending the anti-trust exemption for health insurance companies, allowing importation of prescription drugs from other countries, and having a medicare buy-in option.
On the state level I'd love to see single-payer or a public option or even a buy-in option to the state medicaid program (Oregon Health Plan).