October 15, 2009 -- Police arrested 12 people today for trespassing outside the Portland headquarters of Regence BlueCross BlueShield. The acts of civil disobedience were met by similar direct actions in nine cities across the country organized by Healthcare Now and the Center for the Working Poor.
Including the 12 in Portland, 54 people were arrested nationwide.
October 14, 2009 -- People rejected by insurance companies because of pre-existing conditions will pay 12.5 percent more for health coverage through the high risk pool starting Jan. 1.
That decision was approved by a 7-1 vote of the Oregon Medical Insurance Board on Oct. 13. C.J. McLeod, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of ODS Health Plan, cast the only dissenting vote, preferring to raise rates by 15 percent similar to last year. “Otherwise we move backward,” he said.
October 14, 2009 -- Columbia County residents may not have to wait much longer to find out if they’re getting a new hospital.
A certificate of need application for the 12-bed acute care facility is under consideration by the Department of Human Services’ Office of Community Health and Health Planning. A decision is expected on Oct. 22.
Originally at WashingtonPost.com
October 13, 2009 -- If you'd asked me six months ago which Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee would prove the toughest vote on health-care reform, I'd have had a couple answers for you. Blanche Lincoln, maybe. Or Tom Carper. Or Kent Conrad.
I would not have said Ron Wyden.
October 12, 2009 -- Local health officials have been intrigued by the Texas-based AscendHealth Corporation’s recent opening of Cedar Hills Hospital at 10300 SW Eastridge Street in Portland.
October 12, 2009 -- As private mental health hospitals spring up across the state to compete with a new Oregon State Hospital building under construction, community mental health providers are crying out for their own funding.
Leaders at the highest levels in the state’s mental health system acknowledge the strange universe that funds hospitals for the mentally ill while allowing out-patient preventative care to whither.
October 5, 2009 -- Despite his failure to convince his colleagues to pass a free choice amendment to the $880 billion healthcare bill winding its way through Congress, Senator Ron Wyden refuses to give up the fight.
Free choice is “absolutely the key to healthcare reform,” he told physicians attending an Oregon Medical Association meeting last Saturday. Otherwise, “more than 200 million Americans working for large employers won’t have any choice of healthcare coverage.”
WASHINGTON DC, October 3, 2009 – Oregon’s homegrown Mad As Hell Doctors were met by Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Washington DC on the final days of their cross-country media blitz.
The group of doctors drew a modest crowd in front of the White House on Wednesday (Sept 30) capping a month long quest to put single payer back in the national debate. But by far the most exciting moment came when Kucinich arrived. He took the stage like it was the Democratic National Convention.
Originally at Oregonlive.com
October 2, 2009 -- Defying his own party, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon late Thursday sharply criticized the most ambitious health care legislation in a generation, concluding that the bill written by Democrats does not offer millions of workers sufficient choice of insurance plans and lacks muscular tools for controlling medical costs.
