Single-payer system on the ballot in Oregon

[fiestynurse]

Yes, YOU can help pass the Oregon Single Payer initiative

(Oregon.Comprehensive Health Care Finance Act)

When passed, Oregon could then become a model for the rest of the nation. Please read the message below and do what you can. Many thanks.l

Golden Opportunity For The Rest Of America

>From Our Friends In Oregon or Getting To The Beef - Cutting Through The Bull

You may have noticed that the health care crisis in the U.S. is

worsening. The number of insurance companies/HMOs has dropped precipitously, benefits are being whittled away, premiums are soaring (CalPers, the second largest purchaser of health care services in the entire U.S., after the Federal Government, has been hit with a 25% increase next year), when we pay the costs directly they are often multiples of what insurance companies pay for the same services, coverage for drugs is diminishing or non-existent - and their cost is

^^^^, the private practice of medicine has essentially ceased to exist and health care consumers - that is, all of us - have increasingly less say about what happens ("The Beef").

The people of Oregon have just given all Americans a golden opportunity. They have qualified an initiative for the November 6, 2002 ballot that will create the first statewide comprehensive health care system essentially devoid of for-profit insurance companies, through a "publicly financed, privately delivered"

single payer system ("The Beef").

The initiative proposes to provide comprehensive affordable quality health care for all Oregon residents, while controlling costs over time in a clear and accountable way.

Californians paid for a recently completed study done by various

health care experts that found that the proposed system is workable. The California legislature commissioned a two-year study of three single payer proposals and six "incremental reform" plans, based on continued reliance on a for-profit insurance industry. The study found that a single payer system would cut the state's health spending by as much as $7.6 billion while stabilizing the health care system, reducing paperwork and protecting the doctor-patient relationship.

Right now all we have in the U.S. is a broken system and an insurance-industry-inspired-fear-of-change ("The Bull").

So, what's the deal for us? We don't live in Oregon.

In a little more than 100 days, if we help the people of Oregon pass this initiative, the insurance-industry-fostered-misinformation ("The Bull") that has driven us into the untenable health care system we now have will itself be driven into the open. We will have a real live working model of a system that all independent studies have shown should work better and cost less than what we have - and we will have the luxury to watch it work in Oregon and learn from the experience. It's a no-lose situation for us.

Here's the deal. We can help Oregon establish their new system by doing one or more of the following:

1. Once a week between now and the November 6th election, contact at least one person, by e-mail or phone, in Oregon whom you know or one group with whom you have a personal or professional connection and: a) urge them to vote for the Initiative; b) once a week between now and the November 6th election, contact at least one other Oregonian or one group with whom you have a personal or professional connection, by e-mail or phone, and: 1) urge them to vote for the Initiative; and 2) pass on this message.

2. Send whatever money you can to Health Care for All - Oregon :

P.O. Box 51422, Eugene, Oregon 97405

to support passage of the Initiative - but only until November 6, 2002.

3. Go to Health Care for All - Oregon (http://www.hcao.org ) to

review a summary of or the entire initiative.

Go to Health Care Options Project

(http://www.healthcareoptions.ca.gov ) to see what the study we

Californians paid for discovered about the best methods to improve our health care system.

We can get tremendous bang for our effort if we don't miss this golden opportunity.

Join us in the next 100 days to help our friends in Oregon and make America a better, healthier, and more secure place to live.