Single-Payer Supporters Stand Strong in Salem

By Rebecca Robinson
The Lund Report (Portland, Ore.), March 11, 2011

SALEM, Ore. — Supporters of single-payer healthcare legislation had their day in Salem Friday, with a well-attended hearing on the Capitol steps and an emotional hearing for the single-payer bill, House Bill 3510, before the House Health Care Committee.

“This is not all about the bill,” Rep. Mike Dembrow (D-Portland), the sponsor of House Bill 3510, told supporters at Friday’s noontime rally. “Single-payer is a movement.”
 
Dembrow and other supporters of a single-payer system point to existing programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration, as current examples of single-payer healthcare in America: government-run systems with no copays, deductibles or cost-sharing that allow patients to choose their healthcare provider.
 
Dembrow’s sentiment was echoed by all in attendance, including his fellow Representative, Jules Bailey (D-Portland), and Dr. Paul Gorman, a physician at Oregon Health and Science University.
 
“All of us are one illness away from bankruptcy in the current system,” said Gorman, who likened the U.S. insurance industry to Big Tobacco.
 
“They [the insurance industry] are selling us a product that’s harmful to all of us, for a profit,” Gorman said.
 
Legislators heard more about House Bill 3510, also known as the Affordable Health Care for All Oregon Act, from both supporters and opponents at a hearing Friday afternoon. Dembrow and Gorman reiterated their endorsement of the bill, and many more came forward to testify in support of a single-payer system.
 
“Payment with a single-payer system will be simpler for everyone to understand, and much less expensive to negotiate,” said Dr. Doug Bigelow, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at OHSU. He spoke of his eight years practicing in British Columbia, Canada, in a single-payer system with universal coverage, no deductibles and free choice of doctors for patients.
 
“I can say that this system works very well, it’s comparatively inexpensive, and very popular,” said Bigelow. “What stymies us here is the deep structural transformation” required to change the current system – work, he argued, that is both necessary and would lead to long-term savings.
 
An independent insurance agent Paco Maribona, said that even though a single-payer system could cost him and other agents their jobs, he still supported the bill, because “the advantage of all Oregonians getting coverage is worth it.”
 
“I asked my [Portland Community College] students if they didn’t have insurance, and two-thirds of them raised their hands,” said Terri Mills, a longtime nurse educator. “It’s so ironic; they don’t have access to the care they themselves will someday be providing.” She called for “evidence-based policy” that would stem the “growing crisis that continues to erode our living standards.”
 
Opponents of the bill pulled no punches.
 
“We shouldn’t rely on top-down solutions” like House Bill 3510, said Steve Buckstein of the Cascade Policy Institute, “but instead bottom-up liberations.” To reduce costs and improve access, Buckstein argued, use the profit motive.
 
“Walmart started offering $4 generic prescription drugs, and Fred [Meyer] matched those prices,” said Buckstein. “Prices dropped quickly, and [the companies] did it for profit.”
 
Eric Fruits, an economist for the state, likened the single-payer system to an “All-you-can-eat health care buffet” with no cost controls.
 
“It’s impossible to simultaneously provide universal insurance coverage, control costs, and maintain provider participation,” Fruits asserted.
 
Individual consumers also expressed their concerns about government-mandated healthcare.
 
“I’m standing today on my fundamental, constitutional right to choose,” said Kate Jaudes of Salem. “I don’t want the government to force me to go to an MD or punish me if I don’t.”
 
No matter the outcome, both sides will continue to work on either side of the issue to, in Rep. Bailey’s words, “get this done.”

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/single_payer_supporters_stand_strong_in_salem