Grants Pass

Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio will hold a town hall at the Cave Junction City Council Chambers on Wednesday, August 12th.

Should you attend, please speak up and ask the congressman a question. Here are some possible talking points from which you might formulate your question:

We support comprehensive health reform that would accomplish the following:

• Every U.S. resident will have access to a clearly defined set of essential health services.
• The Triple Aim will drive the design of the health care system, in that the health system demonstrates:
  • Improvement in the overall health of the defined population,
  • Reduced per-capita costs, and
  • Improvement in the individual patient experience in terms of clinical outcomes, patient safety and patient satisfaction.
• The business models within our health system must realign financial incentives to make them consistent with the Triple Aim. On example would be to look at eliminating fee-for-service billing, and instead pay providers to keep people healthy and out of the hospital.
• Prevention, health education, and wellness services will be provided and promoted.
• Disparities in access to an essential benefits package and subsequently health outcomes between people of different socioeconomic and demographic groups is not acceptable and therefore should be eliminated.
• The delivery system must be transformed to provide greater access to effective primary care and chronic disease management, while specialty care must be more effectively linked and integrated with primary care providers.
• Electronic Health Records should be developed and implemented to promote and support evidence based decisions and improved efficiency of health care delivery.
• We must include development of a competitive, publicly-funded insurance option that gives Americans affordable and fair choice in how their insurance is purchased.
• We must explicitly acknowledge that public resources are finite. Therefore, public funds must be focused on providing the services which will cause the greatest improvement in population health. Many people may be able to purchase services that are more than those that are provided as part of the essential benefit package available to all residents and they should be allowed to do so. This is true of Medicare where close to 80% of Medicare beneficiaries have some type of supplemental coverage on top of their traditional Medicare benefit. However, the core benefit must provide a sufficient floor of essential benefits so that buying additional services is not absolutely necessary in order to achieve consistent positive health outcomes.

Want a chance to impact health reform this legislative session? Well, Salem and representatives are coming to your town next week to listen to what you have to say.

The Oregon State Legislature's House Committee on Health Care will be holding a public hearing on House Bill 2009 in Grants Pass.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to come out and not only share your feelings on the bill but also your health story as well as the Archimedes Movement's principles.

Recently, our director Liz Baxter testified infront of the committee last week - to read her testimony see the attached document.

If you think you are going to come out and testify at the meeting then please tell us as we'd love to know.

If you have any general questions about the proceedings please contact the committee assistant Lara Eads at lara.eads@state.or.us or (503) 986-1529.

Help shape the future of Oregon's health by coming out and participating. Make sure to tell and bring a friend or even wear your We Can Do Better T-shirt. 

Please feel free to contact matt@wecandobetter.org with any other questions.

In September, the Oregon Health Fund Board (OHFB) will hold a series of public meetings across the state to share details and gain feedback on its draft plan for reforming health care and building a healthy Oregon. For more information contact 503.373.1538.

The draft will be available in early September. OHFB staff will be presenting it across the state and want your feedback before finalizing their report in October; your comments will be summarized and forwarded with the Final Report to the Governor and Legislature.

This will be a Town Hall style forums designed to encourage both feedback and dialog.

Audience members are asked to focus comments on concepts being presented; limit comments to no longer than 2 minutes per speaker to allow as many people as possible to speak. Comment cards will be distributed. Attendees may leave written testimony at the end of the evening.

Medford City Council Chambers
411 West 8th St. #312
Medford, Oregon 97501

Our second Leadership Training will be held the first Saturday in April. Please RSVP using the sign-up link below (preferred, though you must be logged-in to use the sign-up feature) or by sending an email to matt@wecandobetter.org.

This training will focus on three things:

• our new structure and grassroots decision-making
• presenting our message to groups large and small (AKA the speaker's training)
• the upcoming membership meeting

We will also hope to introduce our new staff members.

Save the Date: Wednesday, May 23rd

With SB 27 – the Oregon Better Health Act – now in Joint Ways & Means Committee, we need to maintain our momentum to win.

Join us for a day at the Oregon Capitol and talk to you legislators about SB 27.

We'll help you get prepared. You'll get talking points and lunch!

Sign-Up & Carpool
If you can attend this event, please email (matt@wecandobetter.org) or call (503-709-8574) Matt Webber.

Note that the start time below is when we need to meet in Salem. We'll follow up with more details.