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John Kitzhaber still carries a lot of water in Salem. Earlier this month, he took on state lawmakers and the Oregon Health Authority over their attempt to remove a central component of the Oregon Health Plan: the prioritized list, which rations which treatments the state will pay for (“Hotseat: John Kitzhaber,” WW, Feb. 11). His crusade worked: The bill in question died in committee, WW reported late last week, and OHA leaders said they would try to square the prioritized list with federal requirements. It was a significant victory for the former governor, who went into a political exile after resigning in 2015 but returned to the Capitol to defend the program he created. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Verite_Rendition, via Reddit: “I’ve not always seen eye-to-eye with Kitzhaber on some of the bigger bills he pushed. But I’ve always respected Dr. No when it comes to health care because he gets it. He gets that we have a finite budget for health care, and that at the end of the day rationing will always happen. And that is a quality of pragmatism and transparency that so few lawmakers have.
“My biggest concern with OHP (and public health insurance in general) is that the people are going to do the equivalent of voting themselves the treasury by demanding that everything be covered, no matter the cost and damn the consequences—completely breaking the health care system and public services in the process. People like Kitzhaber have been the force that has kept OHP on the rails for the last 30 years, pushing against other lawmakers and even the public itself at times.”
Henry Rearden, via wweek.com: “Kitzhaber should not be looked up to as a thought leader on statewide medical delivery for the masses. His OHP was a failure from the start. It never delivered the broad-based increases in health outcomes, nor did it save on health care costs; it certainly did not measurably impact use of the ER as a primary care provider when introduced (1989–1999). It had to be dramatically scaled back during the 2002–2003 recession and only was thrown a lifeline by the passage of Obamacare. The largest fiasco was the well-known CoverOregon debacle, but Kitzhaber’s CCOs, hallmarks of the new and improved OHP in 2011, turned out to be massive boondoggles.”
Karen Kellogg, via Facebook: “With high cost deductibles for the Affordable Care Act and private plans, we are also rationing our own care. People do not get tests done, they delay exams because they cannot afford the $8,000 deductible. Families are also choosing not to buy coverage because of unaffordable monthly premiums. The system is broken.”
Diva, via wweek.com: “The attempt to remove the Oregon Health Plan’s priority list is not about Healthier Oregon. Most people enrolled in that state-funded program are undocumented immigrants. The bar is high, requiring adults be below the poverty level. The ‘gender-affirming care’ provision of the OHP is the real elephant in the room.
“The reasoning of Rob Nosse and others is that not having offering gender-affirming care in black and white will allow providing it to continue because Oregon is not saying, out loud, that it is offered. The gambit will not work since courts look beyond pretexts.”
Pdxphotoguy84, via wweek.com: “Y’know...I would love for Kitzhaber to run for governor again. His scandals, if you can call them that now, seem pretty quaint in the grand scheme of things. Especially given the Felon-in-Chief and his merry band of crooks, con artists and carpetbaggers in the executive branch. Also, more importantly, Kitz isn’t in the Epstein files.”
THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES
Nicole Eckrich’s article on the state of craft activism in Portland makes some good points (“Because Portland Is Fighting Fascism With Needles and Hooks,” WW, Feb. 11). But I must point out that the Portland Frog Hat did not originate with Zeb Walter. The hat was originally designed for knitters by my wife, Michele Bernstein, who is known professionally as PDXKnitterati.
Michele designed the Portland Frog Hat while knitting outside the ICE building last fall, and posted the pattern online in October. Walter’s “crochet version” of the same hat came later.
Phil Bernstein
Northeast Portland
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