Our Progress to Date

During its first year, the Archimedes Movement focused on building capacity at the community level; engaging citizens and stakeholders to develop a shared Vision of a new heath care system; discussing the values and principles we wanted such a system to reflect.

This was a robust process of engagement involving over 5000 Oregonians in 30 chapters throughout the state; thirteen hospital CEOs, eleven insurer and health plan executives, dozens of physicians and nurses, leaders of state and national labor organizations and representatives of over fifty non-health related Oregon businesses.

The resulting consensus around a conceptual framework for a new system – and a way to realize it – was reflected in Senate Bill 27 – the Oregon Better Health Act – which was introduced for consideration by the 2007 Oregon legislature.

With the introduction of the legislation, our focus shifted from trying to expand the movement among 3 million Oregonians across the state to trying to influence 90 legislators inside the capitol building in Salem. We shifted our focus from policy development and grassroots organization to political advocacy. This shift in focus was reflected in our activities and on our website. Our short term objective was to enact SB 27 and thus establish and fund our process to produce a blueprint for national reform.

Although this legislation was not enacted this year – in part due to its relatively late introduction into the legislative process – the citizen and stakeholder engagement that took place around it advanced the work of the Archimedes Movement in a number of important ways. First, it confirmed the debate major flaws in our current governance structure by exposing the nature of the stakeholder politics which tend to bind us to the status quo. Second, it legitimized the importance of examining all aspects of our current system, including Medicare and our system of employer sponsored health insurance coverage.

Finally, it produced three important documents which offer a conceptual framework for a new system and which can form the foundation for developing the shared vision necessary to bring about national reform: (1) our Statement of Intent, (2) our Principles, and (3) our Framework (PDFs).

Next: Moving towards Our Goal