Former Oregon Governor Launches Healthcare Reform Movement

By: Jean Johnson for Body1

Former Oregon governor, John A. Kitzhaber, M.D., thought about running for new term at Oregon’s helm, but instead the civic-minded man has decided to follow in the steps of Jimmy Carter.

Take Action

Finding Answers Wondering about health insurance? The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality offers many answers on their site: www.ahcpr.gov/consumer. Be up to date on your health insurance Do you and your family members have current insurance cards? Do family members keep proof of insurance in more than one location (in case of a lost wallet/stolen purse)? Are you aware of all the benefits your insurance plan offers? For example, some policies offer reimbursement for health club or gym membership fees. Does your babysitter have an emergency list that includes your children’s doctors, their locations and insurance information just in case? Are you prepared insurance-wise for life events including: pregnancy, well child exams, long-term care or rehabilitation? Those interested in getting involved in The Archimedes Movement can find out more about the organization at www.archimedesmovement.org

Instead of human rights and housing though, Kitzhaber with his medical background is championing healthcare reform called the Archimedes Movement. Archimedes, of course, was the Greek mathematician who said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I can move the world.”

“With Oregon as a place to stand and the reengagement of the people around a common cause and a commitment to building a better future of hope and opportunity as a lever,” said Kitzhaber. “We can make a difference and I ask all to join me on this quest.”

Healthcare Costs Have Wider Implications

Taking an economic focus, Kitzhaber clearly hopes to appeal to fiscal conservatives as well as liberal reformers.

“Rising medical costs eat into corporate margins, reducing the capacity of firms to grow and compromising competitiveness in the global economy,” he said. “They slow the rate of job growth, suppress wage increases for existing workers, and foster labor disputes and lost productivity. Today health insurance for the average family costs $10,880 a year – up from $9,950 last year – and, for the first time, exceeds the gross annual income of a full-time minimum wage worker.

“The cost of healthcare is also the major driver behind our national debt – the dark legacy we leave to our children,” Kitzhaber said, enlarging the scope of his analysis. “This staggering debt is being financed by China and other countries willing to purchase U.S. securities. We are literally handing our financial future over to our major international competitors, putting at risk the independence and self-determination which lie at the heart of our national identity.”

America’s national debt is now a skyrocketing $7.5 trillion, a figure that executive director of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle, Denis Hayes, helps interpret. “Zeroes are important. A million seconds ago it was last week. A billion seconds ago, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C., and early humans were using stone tools.”

Kitzhaber also argues that even as Congress worries about $5 trillion gap in Social Security, the real problem is the $65 trillion unfunded entitlements gap that aging baby boomers will try to access as their health and earning capacity decline and they increasingly rely on federal support. Additionally, the former governor notes that hard-pressed states are funding Medicaid programs while primary and secondary education is squeezed out.

“My point is simply this. We cannot stabilize school funding without dealing with healthcare. We cannot increase productivity without dealing with healthcare. We can’t remain economically competitive without dealing with healthcare. And we certainly cannot claim to be concerned about our children’s future without dealing with healthcare.

“We are asleep at the wheel here,” Kitzhaber said. “We seem to have succumbed to a sense of powerlessness and resignation – to a growing belief that the system is so huge and complicated that taking it on seems daunting if not futile. That is exactly the attitude we have to change.”

The Current Healthcare System and A Solution

Kitzhaber’s argument is that since our present system is set up in terms of entitlement rather than universal coverage, costs will continue to escalate. He explains that those under age 65 who do not have health insurance wait until they are so sick that they have to go to the emergency rooms, where by law they can expect at least short-term, palliative treatment.

Since these individuals cannot pay these bills, the system absorbs the costs and in turn passes them along to consumers, insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid programs in the form of higher costs.

“My point is simply this,” Kitzhaber said, “we are going to pay these costs one way or another – either implicitly or explicitly. And by failing to do so explicitly, the cost will ultimately be much higher both in economic and human terms.

“We need to stop simply defending programs and start solving problems – and the place to start is by approaching our healthcare system with the same eye to equity and sustainability with which we approach public education.”

A Broader View

Consider the Statistics in Health Care Politics In recent years Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont and Illinois (for all those under 18)have passed legislature aimed to ensure universal access to healthcare. Currently in 2006, eight states are considering universal healthcare bills. An additional seven states have commissioned studies to look at the possibility of a universal state healthcare system. According to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau Population Survey, as of 2004, the states with the highest rate of uninsured people include: Texas at 24.8 percent New Mexico at 21.5 percent Oklahoma at 20.1 percent The states with the lowest population of uninsured residents in 2004 include: Minnesota at 8.8 percent Hawaii at 9.9 percent Vermont at 10.3 percent In 2004, 15.7 percent of the people in the U.S. did not have health insurance

With the healthcare playing field established so that all can expect a modicum of services comparable to what is offered in the nation’s public school system, Kitzhaber points out that those with greater wherewithal could go ahead and seek additional private medical services just as they currently tend to do in accessing preferred private education for their children.

“Let me be clear. I am not talking about simply moving to a Canadian style single payer system. But the bottom line is this: We need to demand a different standard for that part of our healthcare system that is financed with public resources than for that portion that is financed with private resources.

How to Proceed

Kitzhaber has little faith that left to its own devices Congress will initiate the leadership necessary to revamp the current system. Rather he thinks pressure from the outside will be required for change.

He articulates a three-pronged objective geared toward that end and then provides an example of how it would work.

“First is to strip our current system to its bare bones so that you can see and understand its contradictions and inequities. Second is to offer a straightforward vision of what our system should look like. And third is to describe a direct action plan to spark the kind of national debate we so desperately need.”

How to do all those big things? The good doctor has a lead on that as well.

“The implementation of the Oregon Health Plan a decade ago offers a real life illustration of the power of this approach. Between 1989 and 1993, Oregon became the focal point of the national health policy debate because we had passed a bill that was illegal – a bill that violated several provisions of the Medicaid law – an effort which resulted from the simple fact that Oregon refused to accept the parameters of the existing system.”

This led to some serious investigation – and some self-analysis by the federal government that Kitzhaber sees as vital to change. “By seeking waivers from the provisions of these laws, Oregon forced federal decision makers to compare the status quo with a different more rational and more equitable vision of how care should be provided to the poor,” he said. “And through this process, the shortcomings of the current system became apparent, and we were able to maximize the pressure for change. The end result was the implementation of the Oregon Health Plan.”

Creating tension, then, by rethinking policies at the grassroots level and then by challenging federal bureaucracies to see if, in fact, the course they are charting is wise, is the key according to Kitzhaber.

In the speech entitled “On the Road to Revolution: Fear and Loathing in the U.S. Health Care System,” the Democratic governor gave launching The Archimedes Movement, he closed with the following quotations.

“Albert Einstein once said, ‘We can’t solve today’s problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’”

Kitzhaber might have stopped there, but the governor showed his maverick Western roots – even as he issued a plea for all to join him in reworking the nation’s healthcare system – when he added the following.

“I think Edward Abbey, the late Western novelist, put it more succinctly, if not as eloquently when he said, ‘Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up you get a lot of scum on the top.’”

Last updated: 15-May-06