Health Equity

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Rock formations at Bandon Beach in Southern Oregon. | LISA MCKELLY/PIXABAY

Doctor urges community to engage with troubled Bandon safety net clinic

Dr. Hank Holmes won a $418,000 settlement from Coast Community Health Center. Now, he says, the community needs to help ensure its success as outside management prepares to move in.

May 27
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Tents in downtown Portland on March 14, 2022. | SHUTTERSTOCK

'Administrative collapse:' Advocates blame evictions on new Oregon Health Authority housing program

People and providers have spent months trying to tap a new program intended to support health by keeping people out of homelessness, and they say that in the Portland area it's turned into a bureacratic nightmare in which the promised help often does not arrive in time

May 1
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MEMBERS OF THE COLLECTIVE OF INDIGENOUS INTERPRETERS OF OREGON AFTER THEIR GRADUATION CEREMONY AT PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY IN DECEMBER./COURTESY OF PUEBLO UNIDO

More Oregonians speak Indigenous languages, but health care interpreters are lacking

Groups are joining with Legacy Health to ask lawmakers to beef up the training and accreditation program for interpreters to help people access care, other services

May 1
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Trump’s war on measurement means losing data on drug Use, maternal mortality, climate change and more

By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a lack of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.

Apr 22

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A COVID-19 VACCINE IS ADMINISTERED AT THE DESCHUTES COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT IN BEND, JANUARY 2021./BRADLEY W. PARKS/OPB

Oregon joins federal suit to block sudden cancellation of $11.4 billion in health grants

The Trump administration cuts would deliver a $117 million hit to Oregon programs set up to combat disease and drug addiction

Apr 1

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A FLU VACCINATION BEING GIVEN./PHOTO COPYRIGHT: PORTLAND TRIBUNE (USED WITH PERMISSION)

Oregon public health programs hit with $117 million in surprise federal cuts

Trump administration's abrupt halt to grants worth $12 billion around the country has state and local agencies contemplating layoffs and cuts to programs combatting diseases such as tuberculous, mpox and the flu

Mar 27

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BLOGTREPRENEUR/CC BY 2.0)

Longtime Oregon Health Authority equity director sues state over termination

Leann Johnson has filed a federal lawsuit saying she was ‘scapegoated’ and faced retaliation for raising discrimination concerns and questioning agency leadership

Mar 21
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SHUTTERSTOCK

Oregon hospitals report less spending on ‘community benefit’ programs

Hospitals spent less on charity care and other programs while still meeting state minimums, but critics say it's not enough

Feb 25
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Gov. Tina Kotek and Attorney General Dan Rayfield blasted the Trump administration on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 after federal funding portals shut down in the wake of a new White House order.

Kotek, Rayfield blast Trump over shutdown of Medicaid funding

As lawmakers take up an optimistic budget proposed by Kotek, the unexplained abrupt shutdown of federal reimbursements to a variety of safety net programs is sparking a backlash across the country

Jan 28