MVHCA NEWS

February 2014
Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates
Editor: Dianne Farrell dianne.farrell@gmail.com

Here we go!
The HCAO Coalition meeting in Albany January 18 drew the trajectory for our movement as you see above. We will hire a halftime fundraiser in 2014 and a full-time fundraiser in 2015; the budget for 2015 must be $400,000. By that time we aim to have a chapter of HCAO in every House district. The Kickoff Rally comes in February 2015, followed by legislative hearings. Unless our measure passes in the Legislature, we will file for a ballot measure or get the Legislature to refer a ballot measure to the people. We could start collecting signatures by July.

HCAO Coalition Meeting.contd

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For the November election we will need $7 million, mainly for TV commercials and, to win, one million votesplus one. The Coalition meeting drew 97 persons; MVHCA and HCAO-Albany alone sent 17. Fifty four (of some 80) member organizations sent delegates, including 18 labor unions. (The AFL-CIO just came on board recently!) Though HCAO works as a coalition, its bylaws were amended to allow for individual members. Thus you can belong to HCAO as well as to MVHCA, which is an HCAO member organization.

UPCOMING EVENTS
FEBRUARY
24th 79 pm MVHCA Fourth Monday General Meeting, Unitarian Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Dr., Orientation, 6-7

MARCH
2d 11:451 pm at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, 35th & Harrison. Affordable Care Actfor Better & for Worse 3d 79 pm at Mennonite Village, Lakeside Community Center, Albany. Showing of The Healthcare Movie (about the Canadian system, narrated by Kiefer Sutherland) & discussion of the Affordable Care Act.

APRIL
Showing of Sick Around the World, essentially the film version of T.R. Reids The Healing of America. TBA Folksinger George Mann will perform a benefit concert in Corvallis TBA

MAY
16th Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at U of Mass., Amherst and author of Medicare for All study will be in Corvallis. He will present on the OSU campus at noon and for an MVHCA-sponsored event later. TBA

The Study Bill: Why funding it is in the interest of Oregon businessand all of us.
House Bill 3260 authorized the Oregon Health Authority to contract for a study of various options for a universal
health care system in Oregon. It was not funded by the Legislature, and OHA has been looking to foundations and firms to raise the $200,000 required. The study would provide the information needed by the Legislature and voters to support a universal publicly-funded system. (Ironically, Oregon is now paying a consultant $228,000 to analyze what went wrong with Cover Oregon. To say nothing of the $90 million it cost to develop the still-inoperative website!) Universal coverage would sidestep the complications that make the Affordable Care Act so problematic. Oregon businesses spend $8 billion annually on health insurance: the Study Bill is a good investment. Vermont relied on such a study to give voters and legislators the confidence to take action. Vermonts universal systemthe first in the nation--becomes operative in 2017.*
*Adapted from an Oregonian As I See It column by Mark Kellenbeck, M.L. Mercer and Brian Setzler, Oregon businesspersons .

Persons interested in assisting with efforts to raise funds for the cost of the study should contact Dr. Sam Metz: 1-503-754-1329 or S@SamuelMetz.com. Dr. Metz is in charge of HCAO efforts to raise funds for the study. Dr. Metz would also welcome names of business leaders in Oregon who might have an interest in contributing to this study, which could significantly affect Oregon businesses. Sam has personally contacted more than 100 businesses, and will contact anyone suggested to him.

Single-payer health care is alive and well, says Columnist Froma Harrop.

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It did not die with the Affordable Care Act. In fact, a little-known section of the ACA , Section 1332, allows states to apply for innovation waivers starting in 2017 and, as long as they cover as many people and offer coverage as comprehensive and affordable and dont increase the federal deficit, states may go their own way. They may also claim the same federal funding that would have been available under the ACA. Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado and Maryland have strong single-payer movements. But Vermont is the only state already in the process of constructing its own system to qualify for the Section 1332 provision of the ACA. If Vermont can do it, it will smooth the way for other states to follow. Let it be known, Vermont is not purist: private coverage for extras will be accepted, as it is in Germany and France and as with our own Medicare.

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!

In December of 2013, several members of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates attended a conference focusing on Oregon's new Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs), which are transforming the way care is delivered to members of the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid). The early data coming out of these CCOs showed a 9% decrease in ER use, while primary care visits were up by 29%. This is just what should lead to better care, better health, and lower costs! But in January of 2014 a study was published in the journal Science using old data from before the creation of the CCOs. It "found that Medicaid coverage significantly increases overall emergency use." (http://www.sciencemag.org/ content/343/6168/263) This news was picked up by the New York Times, Oregon papers and others, and led to much speculation that the Affordable Care Act would increase the use of emergency rooms and therefore increase spending. But MVHCA was aware of the newer data, old data by using Twitter. The tweet, Emergency Care to Primary Care & Holdtweeted over and over and reached an and we were able to help counter the news based on "Early Data Shows Oregon Health Plan Shifting From ing Down Costs. http://buff.ly/1gzqTT9" was reestimated 70,000 Twitter accounts!

Help us get the word out about health care reform and single payer by following us at www.Twitter.com/MVHCA, and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/MVHCA.

The 2013 Award for Profiteering and Deceit in the Private Health Insurance Industry . Awarded by Health Care NOW! (not MVHCA) ...goes to...youll never guess.

See next page...

UnitedHealth! For paying its CEO, Stephen Hemsley, $49 million in 2013.

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Thanks to everyone who participated! We're sending the award to UnitedHealth's world headquarters in Minneapolis, MN. We'll include all of the reasons you gave us for why they are the worst, such as: "They never approve anything needed by the patients. They have made the process so cumbersome to jump through for authorization that it is impossible for physicians to get appropriate treatment for patients. That is how they make their money, by denying appropriate coverage of their enrollees."

The results of our contest: 37% - UnitedHealth 30% - Humana ...for charging women over 50% more than men for the same insurance plan. 27% - Anthem Blue Cross.for predatory premium increases. 6% - Moda Health...for paying $40 million for naming rights to the Portland Trailblazers arena. Among CEOs, healthcare CEOs receive the highest median pay at $11.1 million. There are thousands of insurance companies, but the seven largest publicly traded health plans alone paid their CEOs a collective $87 million. We could use that $87 million to pay for as many as 8,700 hip replacements. Sincerely,

Ben, Zoraida, and Jeff Healthcare-NOW! National Staff Healthcare-NOW! is a grassroots organization that addresses the health insurance crisis in the U.S. by educating and advocating for the passage of expanded and improved Medicare-for-all legislation.

Get with us! Attend our general Fourth Monday meetings! Unitarian Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Dr., 79 PM
Orientation for new members at 6 PM, same place. Next meeting: February 24 The MVHCA Bookmobile (& DVDs) appears at Fourth Monday General Meetings & Orientations Connect with MVHCA via Facebook (www.facebook.com/MVHCA) and Twitter (twitter.com/MVHCA) Snailmail address: MVHCA, P.O. Box 242, Corvallis, OR 97339

See our website:

www.mvhca.org for information about us and to donateusing Paypal or your credit card.