Richard Ellmyer's blog

The gubernatorial health care debates are over and there is a clear winner - Pete Sorenson.

I have read what they and others have said about their health care plans. I have watched and listened to them in public discussions and debates tell about their health care plans. I have contacted and communicated with them by email, phone and face to face. My criteria for endorsement was the same for candidates for governor as for any candidate running for school board, city council, county commission or the legislature in our state:
A. Does the candidate understand the fundamental basis for Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis?
B. Does the candidate understand the necessity for our state of Oregon to address the problems?
C. Does the candidate support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill or another bill which is on the public table that will address all of the three social conditions which constitute our health care crisis, namely:

Portland, The City That Works - For Its Employees

The Oregonian's Wade Nkrumah reports, "City leaders had hoped to spread more of the cost of health insurance to workers. But the City Council changed course, hoping to avoid labor strife and to encourage workers and management to work toward answers to rising costs. It was decided that all 13 city unions would be offered the same basic package with the same concession in health coverage."
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_ne...

The elected leaders of Oregon's largest city have broken new ground in public administration by officially adopting the faith based technique called management-by-hope. A distinction without a difference from management-by-prayer. President Bush, those who derisively refer to the "peoples republic of Portland," teachers and students of political science around our state please take note. Portland City Commissioners joined their elected colleagues at the Portland School Board who also believe that their job is primarily to make sure that those bargaining units that helped them get elected get the best health care coverage taxpayer's money can buy. Portland's city council and its school board are not moved by the fact that together they will face $50,000,000 in INCREASED health care costs during mayor Potter's term in office. Portland's city council and its school board do not discuss their responsibility nor the details of $50,000,000 in lost services.

If you thought that facing $25,000,000 in INCREASED health care costs for Portland during his term as mayor or sitting in the Oregon governor's chair for the next four years while watching public jurisdictions throughout our state spend $625,000,000 in INCREASED health care costs would prompt a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican to propose action to deal with these crises, you would be wrong.

The mayor of Oregon's largest city, Tom Potter, believes that the federal government i.e., George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist (and they are the federal government) will somehow solve Portland's $25,000,000 problem and bring affordable health care to all of Oregon's public institutions and individual Oregonians. This belief, not to be confused with a well researched, thoughtfully considered, publicly debated and defensible opinion, allows Potter to justify ignoring the problem and passing its solution on to Washington D.C. Unfortunately for Potter, and others that hold this view, he cannot say:

President George W. Bush would be impressed with the lockstep loyalty commanded by law firm Ater Wynne for its public leader and gubernatorial candidate, Ron Saxton. This blind obeisance begs the question: Are Ater Wynne's clients also required to swear allegiance to the archaic health care policy advocated by Ron Saxton that is obediently embraced by Saxton's lawyer colleagues at Ater Wynne?

Not long ago the upper echelon of Oregon's professional campaign managers, from both sides of the aisle, appeared before the Portland City Club and unanimously agreed that health care would be the most important issue in the upcoming governor's race. Ron Saxton, a partner in the Ater Wynne law firm, refuted this prediction by indicating that health care is NOT a major issue much less the major issue. Solving Oregon's health care crisis is so low on Ron Saxton's agenda that it isn't even on it. There are more lawyers, 38, in Saxton's office then words, 35, on his website that mention health care. Here they are.

This week candidate for governor Ted Kulongoski proposed to solve Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis by raising taxes so that a small constituency of Oregonians could get some kind of health insurance.

Two weeks ago governor Ted Kulongoski proposed to solve Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis by commissioning yet another health care study by three committees to be completed in five years - conveniently after the next governor's term of office.

For the last year or so, governor Ted Kulongoski proposed to solve Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis by asking public school employees to join a group health insurance pool. He failed.

So the question arises: Who is giving Ted Kulongoski such incredibly bad advise on health care policy and why is Ted Kulongoski taking it?

Health care benefit negotiations are no longer a private matter between a few civil servants discussing how much of the public treasury should be spent on those sitting at the table. Every health care benefit package negotiated by every public jurisdiction affects every Oregonian's ability to find affordable health care. Candidates for public office that believe health care should be a matter of charity not government, elected officials that believe the federal government will solve Oregon's health care crisis and bargaining units that believe that they deserve better health care protection than the taxpayers who pay for that health care must all be exposed and held to account in the court of public opinion. You, my dear readers, are that court.

Very soon, Oregon's largest city, Portland, will begin the bargaining process for health care benefits. During mayor Potter's term in office there will be an INCREASE in health care costs, paid by some employer/employee contribution, of $25,000,000. To a lesser degree, every public jurisdiction in our state will face similar circumstances. It will be instructive to observe how the players in Portland's game move the pieces.

A war president visits the home front
President Bush offers modest ideas on health-care reform and again makes promises on energy and the deficit
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial...

"But once again, his heart was not in these issues. Look at his health-care ideas: expanding tax breaks for health savings accounts and computerizing medical records. Those modest reforms, mostly aimed at people who already have enough money to pay for a health-care plan and save extra money in the first place. They are no answer to the 45 million Americans who have no health-care insurance.

The overall cost of health care has doubled in the last 12 years and still is rising at four times the rate of inflation. Today there is no graver threat to American business competitiveness than the exploding cost of health care."