Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will share his perspective on health policy developments in Washington, D.C., at a breakfast forum on Friday, April 6. The event, sponsored by Oregon Health Forum, gets underway with a breakfast buffet at 7:30 a.m. at the Multnomah Athletic Club. Wyden takes the stage at 8 a.m., followed by a panel discussion with health policy experts from Oregon. The event concludes at 9:30 a.m.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Kristian Foden-Vencil will moderate the event.
The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Wyden recently spoke out against a proposal by Congressional Republicans that would have a negative impact on the individual health insurance market:
“Instead of working on a bipartisan basis to improve Americans’ healthcare, Republicans have embraced Trumpcare and its failed health care ideas of yesteryear,” Wyden said.
“Between high-risk pools that isolate people with pre-existing conditions, junk insurance that will let insurance companies trample on consumers’ rights and a massive and unprecedented restriction of a woman’s right to choose in the private market, congressional Republicans laid out their ideological priorities that will limit access to health care and increase premiums,” he continued.
“While Republicans have walked away from bipartisan compromise for now, there’s still time to drop the poison pills and get to work on putting families first instead of allowing their premiums to skyrocket.”
Throughout his career in Congress, Wyden has fought to expand health coverage to uninsured families, support reproductive healthcare, expand Medicare and Medicaid, and defend Medicare against attempts to dismantle the program.
Register now to attend the April 6 forum. Tickets are going fast.
Organizations interested in sponsoring this event should contact Diane Lund-Muzikant at [email protected].
Granted, both sides of the aisle slant things. That being said, Oregon had one of the best high risk pools in the nation that provided guaranteed coverage and spread the cost among all health carriers in the State at only slighlty higher premiums. His use of the term "junk Insurance" must be referring to high deductible, low cost health plans. Ensuring these do not become available makes sense if you start with the premise that consumers must not really understand what they are purchasing and therefore shouldn't be allowed to take that risk, even if they can afford it. As far as women's rights to choose, I assume he it talking about not demanding that certain carriers or employers be required to provide abortions on demand.