Updates on our future endeavors and health reform news.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wants Oregon to be exempt from the Health Care Mandate
As you know, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), I authored section 1332 that makes
it possible for Oregon to obtain a Federal waiver and implement its own health care approach without an act of Congress. Oregon
has a long history of pursuing flexible strategies for ensuring that all our people have high quality, good value, health
care that is affordable to both consumers and taxpayers. Oregonians have demonstrated again and again that a one size fits
all approach from Washington is not the best approach for the Northwest, and they have come up with innovative solutions that
the Federal government has never had the flexibility or will to implement. For these reasons, I wrote Section 1332 specifically
with Oregon in mind.
Russell Berman has written an chronological history of the Public Option. He states that "No
policy proposal has had a wilder roller-coaster ride in the Obama administration than the public option". We couldn't
agree more. Click here to read the article.
"As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take
another look at the plan we’ve proposed. There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who
know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo. But if anyone from either party has a
better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors,
and stop insurance company abuses, let me know. Here’s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform.
Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.
Now,
even as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it’s not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which
we find ourselves. It’s a challenge that makes all others that much harder to solve, and one that’s been subject
to a lot of political posturing." - Barack Obama
Politico Article on Our Congress who will vote on our Health Care Reform
237 members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall. Read the whole article by ERIKA LOVLEY. Click here to read the article.
You can read the house bill by clicking here. It is a called the Affordable Health Care for America Act - H.R. 3962. It is 1990 pages
and is next to impossible to understand.
The March and Rally was a Great Success, Thank You!
If you watched the local nightly news on Sunday, three local affiliates, KATU-2, KOIN-6, and KGW-8
all covered either the March or the Rally! We made the news! We also must thank
all the hundreds of people who showed up, especially the Canby Democrats! Thank you to all the people who took pictures and video! Thank you to all the guest speakers, especially
our key speaker Amanda Fritz.
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out on Saturday against the "deceptive
and dishonest" efforts of health insurance companies, who he said are trying to kill healthcare reform, no matter
the cost to the country. We couldn't have said it better ourselves!
The Mayor also spoke at the AIDS Walk event and was very receptive to our grass roots
movement! He even said that he would notify his Twitter followers about the march and event. We kept bugging him, but he never did get
the word out.
Today we had the pleasure of speaking with our Senator, Jeff Merkley at the 2009 AIDS WALK PORTLAND We informed him about our Portland March for a Strong Public option. We
also brought up the polarizing issues of "Public Option" versus "Single Payer" and how they are dividing
up the Health Care Reform Movement even more than just the Republican obstructionists are doing!
