State Health Plan To Drop Coverage Of 25,500 (Oregon)

[hatrack]

SALEM — "The decade-old Oregon Health Plan was built on the twin visions of expanded medical care for the needy combined with aggressive steps to contain spiraling public costs.

The taxpayer-subsidized system is about to do less of both.

The Department of Human Services said Tuesday that budget shortages will force officials to cut by half the number of people on the system's OHP Standard tier, which provides coverage to able-bodied but poor adults who don't qualify for traditional Medicaid.

The tier now serves roughly 51,000, but will stop enrolling new people on July 1 and could start booting clients off before the end of the year, said Cindy Becker, the agency's deputy director."

EDIT

http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=13673

[BayCityProgressive]

1. another step back for universal care

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Some of them will be dumb enough to vote for Bush

[mbperrin]

3. Well,

"They are still going to be in need of health care," she said. "They are not going to disappear."

Sure they will if they don't get medical care. And getting rid of the cigarette tax will, since more smoking means more death!

See, this trickle-down stuff works!

Meanwhile, the dead body of a former president is whisked around the country under great security!

Priorities!

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Sheesh. Oregon will go bankrupt soon, I think.

[diamond14]

5. bush* policies NOW KILLING all the people with diabetes....

there are over 20 million Americans with Diabetes...they are being KILLED by bush* policies at the rate of over 200,000 a year (more than AIDS and breast cancer COMBINED)....

now, bush* will just hasten his already successful KILLING program....it's very much like what hitler did...FIRST, he KILLED the people with disabilities...and nobody said anything much....


people with diabetes cannot survive without daily insulin and other medications...they DIE...and bush* is cutting out the people with disabilities ALL ACROSS AMERICA....


"First they came for the Disabled, and I did not speak out because I was not Disabled. Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then, they came for the Trade-Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade-Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic.

AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME, AND THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK OUT FOR ME."

(1939, Pastor Niemller, who died in a nazi concentration camp)

[nosmokes]

6. but the bushco economy is booming!

if you smoke that crack they give ya, i guess...

here in lane county, home of the second largest metro area in oregon, the sheriff no longer even investigates property crimes, the eugene pd doesn't look at property crime unless it amounts to over $1500 because we don't have any money for beds at the jail. not to mention the schools and the condition of the roads and, and, and...

[FlemingsGhost]

7. So the hospital ER becomes their "Primary Care Physician,"

... creating hefty bills that they will not (cannot) pay.

Oh well, maybe when the general public starts getting inferior emergency care, (or whatever hospitals are forced to do in order to defray the costs of the uninsured needy,) they'll give a shit.

[FleshCartoon]

8. In Mississippi...

...our governor, a Bush friend, has just cut out Medicaid altogether, to go into effect at the beginning of next month and to be completely assimilated into Medicare by Jan. 2006.

65,000 elderly and disabled people in our state will now not be able to afford medical care or medicine.

[salin]

9. so where is that compassion in conservatism again?

my question is does he still plan to take federal medicaid dollars - but use some loophole to lump it in with medicare? Also, isn't Mississippi one of the states that takes in more federal tax dollars than it's citizens pay? In which case the rest of us are subsidizing his budget with money that should be going to provide assistance to the neediest?

[FleshCartoon]

10. I'm not certain...

...but I would guess that the loophole is the option he's going for since he's bouncing all healthcare for these people back to Medicare. As for MS taking in more federal tax dollars than its citizens pay, again, I don't know for a fact, but wouldn't be surprised since it's basically full of poor, working poor, and under-educated people--also that industries have finally found cheaper overseas venues to go to--and we were already on the lowest scale of pay for industry workers in the U.S.--in addition to there typically being no union in place in most of them.

But my point is this: a lot of people are about to lose medical benefits--some of which have no other option and make no more than $600 a month from their S.S. Elderly and disabled people will now have to chose between electricity and medicine.
I'm very frustrated since this affects someone I know drastically and I cannot seem to find out much about how this got through and what the hell is happening. It's like it's been hushed and was slipped in under the radar.

[salin]

14. I understand

my point was more that the Governor is still likely to be getting federal money for these programs (not full funding but partial) - but is reallocating it elsewhere - so money flowing in isn't going to meet these basic needs. Undoubtedly those that get hit are those who can least absorb being hit. It shouldn't be hushed up.

Would it be possible to find a reporter in the paper of the capitol who covers state business, or who covers human affairs who might help point you in the right direction of how to learn what happened legislatively (or start with your state representative - or identify a sympathetic state representative.)?

I heard an editorial page editor speak a year or so ago who said that with the cutbacks at many newspapers there are fewer reporters to dig up stories. But if one could feed a story (information which is digestable, include human interest angles - such as individual's story) - and tell it as "a story"... that often a reporter will pick it up and run with it.

If you can do some leg work, or find a few other people who are also interested who can do some leg work - and find a sympathetic reporter - you could get a story written in the press (again state capital would be the ideal place - it gets read elsewhere and might get picked up.) Then get the small group of people to write letters to the editor in response to the story - a different person writing every couple of days - it might be possible to call some attention on a broader scale to the problem.

[FleshCartoon]

16. That's a great idea!

Thanks. I haven't known where to start--there has been so much conflicting information and our State Gov website is so convoluted and abbreviated that it didn't help much.

I want to find out who voted this in state-wide, not just in my district.

Again, thanks for the great suggestion.

[salin]

20. Glad that I might be able to point in a direction that could help

Would also check out the United Way directory in the capitol - to identify service agencies (non government) that deal with clients most likely to be effected. They may have some information, and or be connected with folks who have data (another hint from the editor - was if you can throw in statistics to help paint the "story" you are telling the reporter.. all the better.) They may have information that could help.

[dsc]

21. The Clarion Ledger will run it unless they have changed alot

In 1997 they ran a series of stories on AIDS patients who were being denied their meds due to budget cuts. Every single day for over 20 days they profiled a different AIDS patient facing death. Eventually the decision was reversed.

[salin]

24. here is a NYT column

that might help get the initial attention from a reporter/reader (esp if one could find some numbers of local examples of impact through a local social service organization).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x56103

[HuckleB]

12. Somewhere in all those no votes for measure 28.

God forbid that we pay to help each other out in this state.

Sheesh!

[Wapsie B]

22. It sure looks that way.

"isn't Mississippi one of the states that takes in more federal tax dollars than it's citizens pay?"

[Jose Diablo]

11. Bu$h at fault, you bet, but so is congress

let us not forget congress is as responsible as Bu$h.

He would not be able to do these things if congress did not allow it.

[HuckleB]

13. So are the voters in Oregon.

The majority of whom refused to pony up a little bit of money to help take care of those with less. It's bloody pitiful.

[progressivebydesign]

17. You're right about Measure 28.

My husband and I had to relocate to the Pacific Northwest, for job reasons.. but were able to choose either Oregon or Washington. I LOVE so many things about Oregon.. BUT Washington won out, because I saw the writing on the wall when voters there rejected 28. I couldn't believe the mentality. The extra cost would have been as low as 14 dollars a YEAR for some voters.. And.. I remember the Repug legislators made some comments right before the vote that they had a trick up their sleeve to save all those programs.. instead of measure 28. When it failed, they also failed. Too bad to see that in a State that has so many great things going for it!

BTW We moved to Western Washington.. and couldn't love it more. Unlike California and Oregon, the schools here haven't been ravaged by budget cuts.. they still have music and sports and extra curricular activities. Our property tax is a tad higher.. but it's so worth it for a nice, big library that's actuallly open, great roads, beautiful parks, and nice schools.

Oregon has SUCH potential.. I do hope that something happens for the good there, for once.

[HuckleB]

19. Actually, I'd still choose the schools here over those in Washington.

I hate to tell you, but things are just as nice here, if not better than in your current neck of the woods. Washington's had its own issues over the past few years, including some nasty tax cutting by the voters. Not that it's not a great place to live, but it's got nothing on Oregon, despite our backsliding in certain areas.

[progressivebydesign]

18. You're right about Measure 28.

My husband and I had to relocate to the Pacific Northwest, for job reasons.. but were able to choose either Oregon or Washington. I LOVE so many things about Oregon.. BUT Washington won out, because I saw the writing on the wall when voters there rejected 28. I couldn't believe the mentality. The extra cost would have been as low as 14 dollars a YEAR for some voters.. And.. I remember the Repug legislators made some comments right before the vote that they had a trick up their sleeve to save all those programs.. instead of measure 28. When it failed, they also failed. Too bad to see that in a State that has so many great things going for it!

BTW We moved to Western Washington.. and couldn't love it more. Unlike California and Oregon, the schools here haven't been ravaged by budget cuts.. they still have music and sports and extra curricular activities. Our property tax is a tad higher.. but it's so worth it for a nice, big library that's actuallly open, great roads, beautiful parks, and nice schools.

Oregon has SUCH potential.. I do hope that something happens for the good there, for once.

[crossroads]

15. This is truly sad, all these people w/o *any* healthcare...

I hope those that do vote (and their familys) will vote no to those who made this so... hit back at the voting booth... it is the kids I worry about...
:spank:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. One reason I didn't feel so bad about leaving Oregon

was my disgust with the pig-headed politics here.

There are a lot of rural poor in the state, and wouldn't you know, most of them voted for the law-and-order knuckle dragger Kevin Mannix. And it wasn't as if Kulongoski was any sort of a leftie.

Maybe the Libertarians and the libertarian-leaning Republicans will have their "paradise" in a couple of years. Then we'll see how they like it.

Perhaps Portland (and other large cities stuck in backward states) could secede and form new states that wouldn't be held back by self-defeating voters.