For Immediate Release
Oregon Single Payer Coalition
Contact: Michael Moore, OSPC president (503) 707-1239
Joanne Cvar, OSPC communications chair (541) 563 3615

Portland, Oregon – Delegates from 28 unions, nonprofits and grassroots organizations gathered in Portland on Friday, January 27, to form a new coalition that will advocate for universal health care in Oregon and the U.S. Seven labor unions joined with 21 community organizations to sign the membership agreement, approve bylaws, and elect an interim executive committee.

The coalition grew out of a partnership between four organizations–Health Care for All–Oregon, Portland Jobs With Justice, Mad As Hell Doctors (MAHD) and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). Two years ago these organizations formed the Oregon Single Payer Campaign (OSPC), which last year organized a conference at the First Unitarian Church in Portland attended by 500 people. OSPC also spearheaded the introduction of HB 3510 last year in the Oregon legislature by Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-HD 45). HB 3510 would create a single-payer financing system that guaranteed universal access to health care for all Oregonians, including the more than 600,000 Oregonians who do not have health insurance. Rep. Dembrow was in attendance at the founding meeting of the coalition.

“The goal of OSPC was to get the issue of universal access health care on the table, since its advocates had been shut out of the federal health care reform debate,” said Michael Moore, delegate from Sisters of the Road and newly elected interim president of the coalition. “The goal of the new coalition is to engage all communities across Oregon in a conversation about what we can and should expect from our health care system. We think providing universal access, as almost all other industrialized nations do, is the only truly humane and cost-effective system available. We need a broad and diverse coalition of organizations to help us understand how to take that message to all the constituencies we need to reach.”

Oregon's current health care system is neither humane nor cost-effective. The only health care resources available to many uninsured adults are hospital emergency rooms and pay-for-service options at some clinics. Even in communities such as Scappoose, only 21 miles from Portland, the Oregon Health Sciences University clinic does not accept uninsured patients. In Oregon, it is estimated that the cost of uncompensated care for uninsured and under-insured adults and children will exceed $1.1 billion in 2012.

Rosalie Pedroza, delegate from the Rural Organizing Project, said, “In rural communities, many areas don¹t have insurance options, and facilities are limited. Current cost increases are unsustainable; we need affordable health care for all.”

The unions signing on to the coalition's founding are: American Federation of Government Employees Local 2157, Communication Workers of America Local 7901, Laborers Local 483, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82, National Association of Social Workers ¬ Oregon, Oregon Nurses' Association and Service Employees International Union Local 49. The nonprofits joining them are: Alliance for Democracy, Center for Inter-cultural Organizing, Community Alliance of Tenants, Elders in Action, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Health Care for All Oregon, Health Care for All Oregon–Eugene, Jobs with Justice-Central Oregon, Jobs with Justice–Portland, Jobs with Justice–Southern Oregon, Mad as Hell Doctors, Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates, Oregon Action, Oregon Latino Health Coalition, OSPC-Florence Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program–Eugene, Mid Valley and Portland, Rural Organizing Project, Sisters of the Road. The Tree Institute, and Universal Health Care for Oregon. Six affiliated or pledged organizations were unable to attend, and ten organizations sent delegates as observers.

The coalition does not plan to introduce legislation this year. In the near term, it will focus on grassroots community organizing and outreach. It plans to meet again in six to eight weeks to elect a full board of directors, develop a strategic plan and finalize the selection of a name.

By Samuel Metz
The Oregonian March 29, 2011


Am I crazy, a physician embracing legislative efforts to create a single-payer health care system in Oregon? You be the judge.

It would create thousands of jobs. It would provide health care to people whether they work full time, part time or are retired,  
disabled, sick or unemployed. It would stimulate Oregon business. It would reduce our state deficit. And it would provide comprehensive  
care to every Oregonian without spending more than we do now.

Where would the money come from? Oregon businesses and families already spend this money. But Oregon wastes $4 billion annually in  
private insurance administration. That's premium money that never goes toward health care. Half is the insurance company overhead. The rest  
is what hospitals and providers like me waste collecting payments from insurance companies. Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinhardt,  
speaking recently before the Senate Finance Committee, said of Duke University's 900-bed hospital: "We have 900 billing clerks at Duke. I'm not sure we have a nurse per bed, but we have a billing clerk per  
bed. It's obscene."

For physicians, it's no easier. A Chicago doctor faces as many as 17,000 different sets of benefits for her patients. Your physician in  
Oregon might deal with only 300. But that's still a lot of paperwork that doesn't provide health care.

Single payer would eliminate these administrative losses. Diverting $4 billion to real health care is more than enough to enable  
comprehensive, no-deductible, no-co-pay, all-medications-included health care to every Oregonian, young and old.

So why doesn't everybody embrace single-payer financing? It's a stark answer: The money is re-labeled as "taxes." And unfortunately many  
voters who unknowingly pay thousands of dollars in premiums and out-of-pocket payments refuse to pay a penny of it as a tax, even when this  
tax would buy them more health care at less cost and protect their  
families from medical bankruptcy.

Other objections are mere distractions. Single payer will destroy jobs? No evidence. Single-payer studies in 14 other states suggest  
35,000 new jobs in Oregon. That's 12,000 more than the entire Oregon insurance industry. And because these new jobs are highly paid medical  
personnel, they generate $500 million in new tax revenues.

Will businesses flee Oregon? Single payer would eliminate labor disputes over health care benefits. It would halve the cost of human  
resource departments (no health benefit management). Entrepreneurs would be free to create new businesses without fear of losing health  
care. Business would flourish.

Worried about our state deficit? Single payer would reduce government costs to provide comprehensive benefits to state employees. Couple  
this with increased tax revenue and the budget deficit would go down.

A new single-payer health care bill -- House Bill 3510 and Senate Bill 888 -- would be a win for all Oregon. Families finally would get  
the health care they need. Workers would enjoy thousands of new jobs. Employer costs would go down. And so would our state government's  
deficit.

Single-payer health care: It's not crazy. It's good for Oregon, good for you and good for your legislators. Tell them now.

Samuel Metz is a Portland physician.

Since 9/11, law enforcement agencies across America have continued to monitor and
harass groups and individuals for doing little more than peacefully exercising their
First Amendment rights. 

Virginia Cody -- a retired Air Force officer and anti-drilling activist -- was
shocked to mistakenly receive a bulletin from the Pennsylvania Homeland Security
Director describing the monitoring of several anti-drilling groups. The bulletin
revealed that Virginia and other anti-drilling activists who were peacefully
exercising their First Amendment rights were included in state "anti-terrorism"
reports. 

Unfortunately, Virgina's story is not unique. Last year, the ACLU released a report
that revealed that these kinds of law enforcement behaviors -- monitoring,
infiltrating and spying -- have taken place in at least 33 states plus the District
of Columbia in recent years. This means countless Americans have been put under
surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march,
protest, espouse controversial viewpoints, or engage in normal, innocuous behaviors
such as writing notes or taking photographs in public. 

Take action: Oppose reauthorization of parts of the PATRIOT Act that allow
domestic spying. 
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=x82j0OfULrM-2j7icoqApw..

Watch the video: Domestic Spying Victim: Virginia Cody 
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=RMn1X8rM3MMOwkc9XcMNBA..

Learn more about who's watching you. 
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=-u_GZ74i2zgrYJMUDn4LmA..