Policy Focus: 2011
The Community Leadership Council (CLC) meets monthly to talk about events, policy and strategies. We also build in what we have learned in all of our public engagement efforts. Our work is guided by the Triple Aim, and it’s three objectives, to:
- improve the health of a defined population;
- reduce or contain per capita costs; and
- to improve the experience of users of the system. With a vision and mission focused on public engagement, we continually look for opportunities to translate often complex and complicated system language into ideas that the public can understand and weigh in on.
In January 2011 the CLC met to discuss Oregon’s 2011 legislative session, acknowledging that Oregon faces a significant budget deficit and our objectives need to be clear in order to avoid distraction.
While we don’t often take positions on specific bills, we use the Triple Aim to guide whether and how we will interact during legislative debates. Our objective is to have better legislation that reflects the Triple Aim and the voices of the people, rather than a simple objective of passing legislation.
This year, the first year of annual legislative sessions in Oregon, the CLC has identified several policy areas to focus on::
- SB 97 would create a collaboration between the Oregon Health Authority, boards that license health professionals, and stakeholders, to come to agreement on continuing education regarding cultural competency. The CLC feels that this concept fits squarely with the Triple Aim, specifically that this will improve the ‘experience of care.’
- SB 99 would authorize establishment of a Health Insurance Exchange. SB 99 has no mention of the Triple Aim to guide its activities, but then most of its language revolves around how we purchase private insurance. In 2010, we testified before the Oregon Health Policy Board, saying that the Health Insurance Exchange must include authority to continue development of a publicly owned health plan, and that governance and accountability must be explicitly laid out. We will carry this message to legislators as well.
- Single Payer legislation has been introduced this session. While we have not endorsed this or any single payer bill, the CLC believes that this approach deserves further analysis so that it can be compared side-by-side with other payment models fairly. Our framework for reform acknowledges limits, and the need to discuss how we make tough choices among scarce resources. The current discussion around single payer does not include elements of our agreed upon framework, so we will work to include those aspects as the discussion moves forward.
- Sugar sweetened beverage tax legislation has been introduced, and this discussion is one that we want to follow because of its relationship to childhood obesity and other health conditions. Additional legislation is under consideration that would prohibit use of public funds, such as the Oregon Trail Card (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), to purchase foods containing highly refined sugars. Both of these align with our desire to be good stewards of public funds, and to assure that we invest our funds to result in improved population health.
- At the federal level, we are supportive of Senator Ron Wyden’s efforts (S. 3598) to promote legislation that would allow states to seek a waiver from provisions of the Affordable Care Act sooner than its currently legislated timeline of 2017.
- In addition, staff and members of our CLC currently participate in the following coalitions because of their policy focuses:
- Human Services Coalition of Oregon: promotes the dignity of all Oregonians through improved public policy and strengthened support for human services.
- Health Equity Policy Review Committee: assembled to proactively evaluate all recommended policy improvements throughout the policy making process to assure they fully promote the elimination of inequities and promote health equity.
- Oregon Health Coalition: the strategic center for collaboration among organizations and coalitions across the state to support consumer health advocacy.
- The Commons Convergence: working with Onward Oregon and other other community based organizations who are planning a Portland-based event to explore and celebrate shared local and national common resources.
- People of Color Health Equity Collaborative (POCHEC): a statewide strategic policy advocacy and structure for communities of color
- Oregon Health Reform Collaborative: working with more than 25 organizations to develop a common vision and message for a vastly improved health care system in Oregon.
PDF 
THIS IS BEING SUBMITTED FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
Two trillion six hundred billion dollars is presently spent yearly in the United States for health care. That amounts to about $8700 for every man woman and child. For a family of four it costs $32,800. That is more money than tens of millions of families earn in a year, especially after taxes.
The cost will go up to 25% of the Gross Domestic Product by 2025 according to the Congressional Budget office. That is only 14 years from now. This will bring the cost of medical care to over $50,000 for a family of four. That’s crazy but unfortunately true.
The remedy many give is to ration care for all. Our solution should be to find cures for the illnesses so that we don’t need so much medical care. That can only be done with increased medical research. Our scientists and engineers are exceptional. If we fund them appropriately they will find cures and preventions. It will help us and be our gift to the world.
Military research costs fifty billion dollars yearly more than the government spends for medical research. Shame on them. We should demand that government expenditures for medical research at least equal military research and hopefully exceed it. Over a ten year period the government spent hundreds of billions of dollars more for military research then they spent for medical research.
The cost of health care is making us uncompetitive in the international trade market and usurping our wealth in the United States. It is killing our job creating ability. But most important we will have a healthier nation and have a healthier world.
The high cost of health care will also make inequality of health care as poorer people won’t be able to afford top medical care. Only medical research can help solve this problem. Politicians and the press talk about health care but not medical research. We should encourage this to stop by informing the public with public relations and demonstrations.
The demonstrations should be aimed both at politicians and the press.
No matter how much health care the American people get with the present technology there will still be large numbers of deaths yearly. That is because the state of the art isn’t capable of saving the lives of large numbers of Americans. We need more progress.
More than 50% of the personal bankruptcies in the United States are brought about because of medical expenses. Many are impoverished and suffer from near bankruptcy.
The statistics listed below are heartbreaking. Most of the dead got good medical care but it wasn’t adequate. Even billionaires aren’t exempt from the ravages of untreatable medical conditions that kill almost everybody. Warren Buffet’s wife died of breast cancer. He couldn’t save her with vast medical expenditures. Steve Jobs also died of cancer and his vast expenditures to save himself were useless. There are large numbers of other wealthy people who have the same experience. We still have a long way to go to improve medical care.
The statistics listed below are only for the “major illnesses”. Large numbers of people die of other disabilities. In addition large numbers of people are blind, paralyzed are in excruciating pain and have other disabilities that medical care can’t presently cure. They need help. Research is the only possibility of helping them..
Every six months more Americans die of what Doctors cannot cure in our country than died in all the wars of the twentieth century and twenty first centuries. Why doesn’t any organization speak out about this?
I hope that the Occupy Movement will be the voice for health research. Surveys have shown that the majority of Americans believes that we should spend more for health research. If we take this on as a major cause the general public will give us more credibility and be more likely to accept the other things that we believe in.
The remedy many give is to ration care for all. Our solution should be to find cures for the illnesses so that we don’t need so much medical care. That can only be done with increased research. Our scientists and engineers are exceptional. If we fund them appropriately they will find cures and preventions. It will help us and be our gift to the world.
The statistics listed below are heartbreaking. Most of the dead got good medical care but it wasn’t adequate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the following were the eight major killers of Americans yearly.
Heart Diseases: 616,067
Cancer: 562,875
Stroke: 135, 875
Chronic lower respiratory disease: 127,924
Diabetes: 71,632
Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
Nephritis, Nephritic syndrome and nephrosis: 46, 448
Septicemia: 34,828
_______________________
1,679,332 Deaths
Every two days 9,203 people die of major illnesses. (we are not counting the “minor” illnesses.) That is 2, 923 more Americans than died in combat in nine years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. In one year 1,679,632 died of the above diseases. In five years 8,398,160 people are presently scheduled to die. In twenty years about 33,398,160 Americans are expected to die of the above diseases.
American deaths from some recent wars are as follows. World War One – 116,708. World War Two – 407,316, Korean War – 58,169, Iraq War – 4,477 and the Afghanistan War – 1,803. The soldiers that died and serve are patriots and should receive the highest honors.
Every six months more Americans die of what Doctors cannot cure in our country than died in the 23 years of wars of the twentieth and twenty first centuries.