We Can Do Better is supporting several bills during this legislative session. The first relates to advancing cultural competency among health and health care professionals (HB 2611). We first endorsed this proposal in 2011, seeing it as a vital component of reaching the Triple Aim, and believing it will lead to a better experience of care for patients and providers. We have submitted a letter asking the House Health Care Committee members to support the bill. We were excited when this passed and heading for the governor’s signature!
We prepared testimony in support of HB 3260, which would charge the Oregon Health Authority with conducting (or contracting for) an analysis of the best method for financing health care in Oregon. It would allow Oregonians to compare the costs of:
- the system we have today
- a publicly funded/single payer model
- a model where Oregonians can choose between commercial insurance and a public funded health plan, and
- one or two additional models that may be recommended, including the BAsic Health Program that is described in the ACA.
In addition, with our role housing the Allies for a Healthier Oregon (AHO), we are also supporting bills that our partners and allies are leading the way on. These include:
- HB 3332 – creates a special fund that would provide up to 20 percent of the financing needed to construct new housing for individuals living with mental illness. (Awaiting hearing in Ways and Means Committee)
- HB 3407 – would create a Traditional Health Worker Commission to be the rulemaking body within the Oregon Health Authority. (Awaiting hearing in Ways and Means Committee)
- HB 2134 – would greatly improve the granularity of date collected related to race, ethnicity, preferred language(s) and disability of people on public assistance. (Passed and heading to the governor for signature!)
Good work and thanks for your efforts. I am really supporting HB 3260 and plan on going to the committee hearing on April 5.
I read nothing consistant with a claim that the needs of the elderly and/or disabled, those targetted with unlawful housing and medical care discrimination, have been considered. This is the second event in less than three years that a 64-66 year old survivor of infantile paralysis (post-polio syndrome) has experienced elder abuse, threats to dispose of my personal property, destruction of food and plants, and finally the disapearance of my wonderful cat Abner. Get out of your delusional kudoes and come to McMinnville. We have five judges in Yamhill County who should be taken to federal court for civil rights violations. And I am caucasion, the daughter of a Navy Lt. Cmdr.