David : No idea where you get your information about the Mass health care plan going broke. Romney was on the tube the other night bragging about the plan. Of course, he isn't exactly an unbiased source, but you'd think he would not have done so if the plan was in serious trouble. I looked for some kind of confirmation of your comment. Maybe there is such, but I could not find anything. As for Oregon, there are good years and there are bad years. When the state has budget shortfalls they trim benefits and limit enrollments. One year there was a freeze on new sign-ups and people were only admitted via a lottery system Those already in the plan were not effected. OK, it isn't perfect, Oregon also must maintain some kind of budget discipline. But it is literally a lifesaver and a far better way to use public revenues than to prop up banks and funnel hundreds of billions to Wall Street. For me the questions isn't whether public health is good, but how to keep it solvent once we get it. The whole society benefits when everyone is physically healthy. And at the low end of the income spectrum there simply is no way in hell for minimum wage workers, or even anyone somewhat better off, to afford health care Hospitals like it, at least in principle, since ER services are reimbursed by the state and the hospitals don't need to swallow the costs. But what angers me isn't public health, but price gouging up and down the line in the health services field. And the greed of some ( by no means all, but some ) doctors and other medical professionals. I mean, you can't blame Uncle Sam for more than a fraction of the rising costs of health care in the USA. And I doubt if you think that 17% of the economy ought to be spent on medical care when other countries are able to keep such costs in the 10 % range. And its not just health providers per se, but also drug companies, or especially them. Greed as a motivation for going into health services strikes me as grossly immoral. Just as it would be for cops or teachers or 100 other professions. Billy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A little about the OHP, from Wikipedia -- The Oregon Health Plan was conceived and realized by _emergency room_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_room) _doctor_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician) _John Kitzhaber_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kitzhaber) , then a _state senator_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Senate) ,_[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-WWsickness-0) and Dr. Ralph Crawshaw, a Portland activist._[2]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-1) [ Kitzhaber was gov for 2 terms ] It was intended to make health care more available to the working poor, while rationing benefits._[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-WWsickness-0) At the time, Oregon was considered a national leader in _health care reform_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_reform) ._[3]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-2) The law passed in Oregon was not initially compatible with federal law, so a waiver was needed. President _Bill Clinton_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton) approved the plan on March 20, 1993, though he required a revision to the plan due to a concern about whether disabled people would have equal access._[4]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-NYTapprove-3) At the time, Medicaid covered 240,000 Oregonians._[4]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-NYTapprove-3) In 1994, the plan's first year of operation, nearly 120,000 new members signed up, and bad debts at Portland hospitals dropped 16%._[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-WWsickness-0) The plan's costs increased from $1.33 billion in 1993-1995 to $2.36 billion in 1999-2001._[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-WWsickness-0) Significant cuts were made to the Oregon Health Plan's budget in 2003._[5]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-4) New enrollment in the program were closed from mid-2004_[6]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-codered-5) until early 2008, when a lottery-based system was introduced. Tens of thousands of Oregonians signed up, competing for 3,000 new spots in the plan._[7]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-6) _[8]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-7) The Oregon Health Plan was expanded to cover 80,000 uninsured children through legislation that passed in 2009. _[9]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_Plan#cite_note-8) The program has enrolled 38,000 additional children through February, 2010.
_______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
