Next Steps
I am writing to share my thoughts on the recently adjourned Oregon legislative session as it relates to the Archimedes Movement, and to discuss where we go from here. When the Oregon Legislature refused to have a hearing on the amendments to the Archimedes Movement's...
US Slipping Life Expectancy; Other Nations Improving in Nutrition and Oral Health
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON — Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries. For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve...
Looking Forward
Now that the legislative session has adjourned I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your commitment and engagement over this past year and to try to put the session into perspective. I know that it was a disappointment that our SB 27...
Treat the Root Cause in Reform Effort
The following appeared in the Eugene Register-Guard on May 21, 2007, as part of a biweekly series of columns on health care reform. Health care will be a major campaign issue in 2008, but if the debate is to result in meaningful reform, it must be framed around the...
Medicare and the Oregon Better Health Act
At 12:30 PM Next Wednesday, March 14, 2007, I’ll be on the Capitol steps in Salem for a rally and press conference. This event launches the campaign for Senate Bill 27, The Oregon Better Health Act. I hope you will join me. The Archimedes Movement reached a major...
Mental Health Care
In spite of Oregon's long, progressive social and health policy tradition, our mental health system has fallen far and fast in recent years. Economics and indifference have reversed substantial achievements. With more than 33 years in the public mental health system,...
Controlling Costs
In a recent op-ed piece in the Oregonian, Steve Gregg challenged the various health reform proposals – including the Archimedes Movement – to focus on cost containment, and implied that all of the efforts underway are simply trying to find more money to finance the...
Draft Legislative Concept: Need Comments
I want to bring you up to speed on where we are with the Archimedes Movement, to provide you with some background information to help focus the next phase of discussion, and to outline what we’re asking you to do during the rest of September. Toward that end, I refer...
Putting Caring Back into Health Care
Last October I lost my mother at the age of 88. Like most elderly people, both she and my father wanted to die at home--not in an acute care hospital bed. Indeed, throughout my political career senior advocates have supported legislation to create “durable powers of...
Individual Responsibility: Public Input Needed
I am writing to ask for your thoughts on some specific issues. We have had a robust conversation about “principles” but at some point we have to try to incorporate them into a legislative concept. In other words, we need to think about what these principles mean in...
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