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BEWARE! Mass. health care coming to OR‏

2/13/2012

 
By: Oregon Single Payer Committee

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/new_coalition_to_advocate_for_universal_healthcare_in_oregon
February 6, 2012 -- 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

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