 | Latest Central Oregon and State Medical News & Politics
The gamut of opinion, from far left to far right
A Look at Kitzhaber Ad
Sep 04, 2010 In its continuing series on analyzing the accuracy of campaign ads, this one compare the two gubenatorial candidates, one with healthcare management experience and the other with personal illness experience |
Oregon May Opt Out of Health Law
Sep 04, 2010 Sen. Ron Wyden suggests state might want to consider it, and the COMS hopes that our Physician Hospital Alignment's plans for an Integrated Delivery System leads the way |
Longtime Advocate Moves On
Sep 02, 2010 Peggy Carey, RN, MPA, Cancer Center Program Director at St. Charles is Off To Vail Valley Medical Center to assume the position of Vice President of Oncology at the Shaw Cancer Center |
A Decade of Highs and Lows
Aug 15, 2010 The Bulletin's Editor-in-Chief lists healthcare as the number 1 change for the better during the past decade for Central Oregon |
Are Clinical Trials Worth the Risk?
Aug 06, 2010 Markian Hawryluk, The Bulletin health report, reports on how COMS's imediate past president was preparing for his fourth hip surgery when his doctor asked if he'd like to join a medical research trial. Knowing how important such trials can be, the patient-doc didn't hesitate. But experts are worried that too few patients. |
St. Charles Faces Down its Problems
Jul 25, 2010 John Costa, The Bulletin's Editor-in-Chief, lauds the PHA in its battle to overcome Oregon's economic crisis, national healthcare reform, and and naysayers |
If Only Kulongoski had Spoken the Truth from Start
Jul 24, 2010 A Bend physician congratulates our Governor for his candor, at the end of this term in office, in admitting that state employees should help pay for their health insurance (like the rest of us) |
Oregon Should Lead in Health Reform
Jun 20, 2010 St. Charles hospitaliist summarizes mulitiple reasons that local physicians should support, not obstruct, health care reform for the benefit of our patients, community, nation and elected officials who have the most personal and professional knowledge of our healthcare system |
[Healthcare Reform Summit] Not as Dull as Expected
Feb 28, 2010 David Brooks did not plan to watch more than the first half hour of the Blair House Healthcare Summit, but found more substance, some hope, and more leadership skilll in our President than he expected |
Worthwhile Reform
Feb 26, 2010 A Redmond physician lauds a prior Bulletin physician contributor (see Dr. Rozendal's article of February 11, 2010 below) and adds that our (current) politicians should not be trusted to solve our healthcare problem |
Reform Health Care
Feb 25, 2010 A Redmond patient uses her healthcare financial burden to plead for health insurance reform |
Act Now on Health Care
Feb 24, 2010 A Bend resident, hoping for meaningful healthcare reform, recommends that The Bulletin to continue to report on the issue in a concise and bipartisan manner |
Trust Government Health Care
Feb 24, 2010 A Redmond Medicare recipient relates how Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance have worked adequately for himi |
Sen. Ron Wyden Invited to Health Care Summit
Feb 24, 2010 Sen. Wyden (D-OR) participated in Thursday's health care summit as a guest of President Obama after failing to be named to the official Democratic team from the Senate |
Expensive Health Care
Feb 23, 2010 A Prineville intensive care nurse states that it is immoral for health care to be profit driven and our current health insurance systems will someday force her to deny care |
Reform Health Care
Feb 23, 2010 A Bend resident and her husband, who was the medical director for a Seattle hospital, who have had Medicare for nearly a decade, chastize those who are "non-caring, selfish, and pass the buck" in opposing healthcare reform |
Beware of ‘Comprehensive’ Anything
Feb 21, 2010 A historian at Stanford University invokes the adage that those who don't study history are destined to repeat mistakes in arguing that healthcare reform should utilize incremental changes instead of the "all at once" process our President has chosen |
Political Reform
Feb 20, 2010 A Bend resident deplores the dishonesty among our elected leaders |
Deschutes County Ranked 6th in State in Health Outcomes
Feb 18, 2010 Robert Wood Johnson, in conjunction withthe University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute, ranks Deschutes County 6th among Oregon's 33 counties in Overall Health Outcomes (5th in mortality and 8th in morbidities) and 2nd in overall Health Factors |
Wyden’s Bill seen as Benchmark for Bipartisan Reform
Feb 14, 2010 President Barack Obama's decription of Sen. Wyden's Healthy Americans Act as too “radical” hasn’t stopped Republicans from calling the Democrat's measure a better alternative than the Democratic bills in the House and Senate, which would make smaller changes to the current system but rely more heavily on federal mandates than Wyden’s bill. |
Joint Resolution Taking Wrong Step
Feb 14, 2010 The Bulletin editors find the resolution of Rep. Greenlick (D-Portland) long on compassion and short on process and conclude that it would do nothing to solve the problem of rising healtcare costs, access, or the health of Oregonians |
The Best Health Reform Plan will be Politically Difficult
Feb 11, 2010 A retired Redmond physicain with 40 years experience in private practice family, medical school associate professor, naval medical officer, hospital insurance company medical executive, and whose wife died of multiple sclerosis excluded from insurance coverage because it was “chronic” explains that until we as a people stop expecting the health care system to keep us in good health without too much effort on our part and continuing to be "careless, sedentary and indulgent", Congress' current proposals to solve our health care crisis is "a distant dream" |
Strategies for Measures 66 & 67, Provided by the OMA
Feb 08, 2010 The OMA, which did not take a position on Measures 66 and 67, now provides advice to physicians from a team of financial advisors at The Partners Group and a business partner of ours, Dave Brookens, CPA, Partner and Director of Tax Services at Van Beek & Co in Tigard |
Bad Arguments
Feb 04, 2010 A Bend resident characterizes the authors of letters to The Bulletin editor on healthcare as opinionists and the ruies he believes they follow in writing their opiinions |
Oregon at the Tax Crossroad
Jan 15, 2010 Oregon's Measure 66 & 67 leads the nation in testing whether taxation should be used to provide healthcare, educational and public services during the great recession, as described in this Wall Street Journal editorial on "A ballot showdown over highe rates" |
The HIRE Act and Its Advantages for Medical Practices
Jan 01, 2010 Kevin Greig and Erik Parrish, CPAs with Kernutt Stokes Brandt & Co. LLP, the COMS tax accountants, emphasize how medical practices can take advantage of the HIRE Act that took effect on January 1, 2010. |
Reform Myths
Dec 31, 2009 A Bend resident points out that much, if not the majority, of what has been stated against healthcare reform false and should have no place in a public debate on a public issue so critical to the health of our nation’s citizens |
Kill the Health Care Reform Bill and Start Over Again
Dec 30, 2009 A Prineville resident argues that the healthcare reform process in Washington D.C. is so flawed, including having been heavily influenced by trial lawyers and pharma, that it should be abandoned and started over |
Support Walden
Dec 28, 2009 A Bend and prior Canada resident is glad that Rep. Walden is representing Oregon in healthcare reform the way he has |
Bad Health Billing
Dec 27, 2009 A Bend resident reports her experience 4 months ago with a bill for $128 for 5 minutes for her provider to discusss lab results that previously was accomplished by phone at no extra charge |
Praise for Walden
Dec 27, 2009 A Sunriver resident notes that the 10-year $840 billion cost of the House Bill does not include the $210 billion in another bill that increases Medicare payments to physicians |
Health Bill’s Pain
Dec 26, 2009 A Bend resident finds that the bill the U.S. Senate passed the day before will hurt the very people it is designed to help by endangering small businesses, cut workers’ wages and impose unacceptable costs on the people of Central Oregon |
Stimulus Supports Oregon Health Plan - for Now
Dec 26, 2009 Of the $1.27 billion Oregon is getting in federal stimulus money for health and human services, $833 million is going to people whose medical benefits are paid by the Oregon Health Plan; a greater fear whould be what happens in just over a year, in 2011, when the money runs out |
Keep Fighting
Dec 25, 2009 A Redmond resident worries that the debt burden of the health reform bill that is now in Conference Committee will be beyond what is bearable for generations to come |
Concerns Don’t Keep Oregon’s Senators from Supporting Health Care Bill
Dec 24, 2009 Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley each said the bill, on balance, improves American health care and deserves to pass. Wyden, who has fought to reform the health system since late 2006, emphasized the similarities between his own proposal and the current bill, while Merkley focused on the bill’s expansion of coverage to 30 million uninsured. |
Oregon Senators’ Amendments in the Health Care Bill
Dec 24, 2009 Both Senators Wyden and Merkley have four amendments in the Senate Health Care Reform Bill, one of which inserted by Merkley is leading to considerable controversy in requiring building conractors with less than 50 employees to cover their health insurance as the only industry with this requirement |
Bad Bills
Dec 24, 2009 This Bend resident complains about the number and nature of letters to the editor that criticize Rep. Walden's opposition to the healthcare reform billl passed by the House of Representatives |
Expensive Reform
Dec 23, 2009 A Bend resident points out that the $1 trillion cost of the current healthcare reform bill reflects 10 years of taxes and only six years of benefits |
Kitzhaber Takes the Lead in Governor Money Race
Dec 23, 2009 Kitzhaber’s total fundraising of $389,670 to date puts him slightly ahead of Republican contender Chris Dudley, the former Portland Trail Blazers player who is the GOP’s top moneyraiser at this point. |
Walden’s Critics Should Consider Health Bill’s Problems
Dec 22, 2009 In reviewing letters to editor of The Bulletin critical of Rep. Walden's vote against the healthcare reform bill the House of Representatives, this Bend resident implies that the authors are not independent thinkers |
Oregonians Deserve Full Nelson
Dec 22, 2009 If integrety [principles, according to the editors] "doesn’t get you anywhere in the Senate, you [our Senators] might as well cash in." |
Deficit Reduction You Can’t Believe In
Dec 22, 2009 The Bulletin editors disagree with the President's admonition to ignore those "contintually carping about how this is somehow a big spending government bill.” |
Debate in the United States has Become Too Heated
Dec 21, 2009 As the healthcare reform in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is being decided by absolute non-partisanship, a Bend resident describes how the U.S. has in virtually all matters become devisive, combative, irrational, and guilty of worse behavior than dogs |
Walden’s Vote
Dec 19, 2009 A Bend resident jokes that we as individuals better get in our best phyiscal shape to maintain health and avoid the cost of the new healthcare system if the current reform acts become law; she agrees with Rep. Walden that the taxes imposed by the reform will put small businesses out of business and job loss will escalate |
Bad Bills
Dec 19, 2009 A Bend resident explains that he supports Rep. Walden's, citing a section in the House bill that results in a $250,000 fine and five years in prison for being uninsured |
Walden’s Vote
Dec 18, 2009 A Sunriver resident defends Rep. Walden's vote against the "Nancy Pelosi-engineered health bill" |
Medical Costs
Dec 18, 2009 A Bend resident points out that tort reform is absent from the federal bills because it a matter of state law; she lauds St. Charles for supporting the effort to create a new integrated health care delivery system for Cental Oregon |
Praise for Walden
Dec 17, 2009 A Bend resident worries about how grandchildren will be able to pay for the deficit expected with the impending healthcare legislation, and thus sides with Rep. Walden |
A Taxing Concern
Dec 17, 2009 The Bulletin health reporter describes how a proposal working its way through the U.S. Senate targets Cadillac health insurance plans by imposing a tax on health plans that cost more than $8,500 for an individual or $23,000 for a family. In the Senate's bill, it's one of the biggest revenue boosters, bringing in $149 billion to offset the cost of expanding health care coverage. |
Control Costs
Dec 16, 2009 A Fossil resident hits the lack of cost control regulations in the current healthcare reform bills |
Individual Responsibility
Dec 15, 2009 A Sisters resident considers healthcare as a privilege and not a right, and thereby sides with Rep. Walden |
Bad Reform
Dec 15, 2009 A Bend resident argues that the pending healthcare legislation will not achieve any of the objectives it purportedly was crafted to accomplish |
Republican Logic
Dec 13, 2009 A resident from Bend provides a financial argument to label the party not currently in power as hypocritical partisans |
Address Health Care
Dec 13, 2009 A Bend resident notes the the Chinese hope that we don't pass universal health insurance, even though they have it, since, she speculates, the Chinese may want to surpass us in heathcare |
Liberal Letters
Dec 12, 2009 The co-Chair descrribes the Bend Tea Party's suipport for Rep. Walden and their rationale to trump liberals clamoring for government freebies and socialism |
Bad health Bill
Dec 10, 2009 A Bend resident pleads for choice, in arguing against the healthcare reform act(s) |
Broder was Wrong
Dec 10, 2009 A Bend resident prefers columns written by another Washington Post journalist, Ezra Klein, over David Broder, who was supported in a The Bulletins editorial |
Simplicity First
Dec 09, 2009 A Bend resident prefers a couple of simple solutions over the complexity of the current healthcare reform acts in progress |
Listen to Wyden
Dec 07, 2009 A Sunriver resident supports Sen. Wyden's Healthy Americans Act as the "only proposal that has a chance of bending the health care cost curve.” |
GOP Demands Ethics Inquiry of Baucus
Dec 06, 2009 The Bulletin editors point out that the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the primary Senator responsible for healthcare reform legislation in the Senate recommnended his girlfriend for appointment as a U.S. attorney, leading to a call for an Ethics Commmittee investigation |
Senate Vote Clears Way for Medicare Cuts
Dec 06, 2009 By a vote of 53-41, the Senate rejected, during an unusual Saturday session, a Republican effort to block cutbacks in payments to home health agencies that provide nursing care and therapy to homebound Medicare beneficiaries |
Canada's Health Care Lessons for U.S.: More Equity, Efficiency
Dec 05, 2009 David Feeny, PhD, The Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, Portland and colleagues at OHSU and Portland State University explain why Canadians spend about half what Americans do on health care but live nearly three years longer, fewer of their babies die during their first year of life, and Canadians score higher on quality-of-life measures, reporting better emotional, physical and mental health
© 2009 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved. |
Health Care Victory
Dec 04, 2009 A Bend residentr applauds the progress in Congress made to date as a historic accomplishment |
Walden’s Right
Dec 04, 2009 A Bend resident chimes in about how the Republicans have been ignored |
The Ethics Question: Do Corporate Ties Raise Conflict of Interest Issues?
Dec 03, 2009 The Bulletin's senior health reporter and Knute Buehler, MD, review the benefits, and now historical limitation, of the pending Sunshine Act that will provide transparency (letting the sun shine in) of physician's financial ties and associated potential confilicts with medical device companies and the patients they serve |
Health Care Solutions
Dec 03, 2009 A Bend resident support Sen. Wyden's vote against healthcare reform, interpreting a poll to mean that a majority of Americans don't want government to bankrupt healthcare |
2 Health Bills Trim Deficit, but You’ll Pay
Dec 03, 2009 House and Senate versions have new taxes and fees, but they target different sources. Oregon’s senators have differed on how to pay for health reform. Sen. Wyden supports taxing health benefits as a way to keep health care costs from ballooning, while Sen. Merkley has said he’s concerned about the impact on union members and middle-income workers with more expensive health benefits. |
Wrong Health Care Vote
Dec 02, 2009 A Bend resident expresses fruistation, as a moderate and 'average' American at Sen. Walden's vote against healthcare reform |
Medicare Physician Fairness Act
Dec 01, 2009 Senator Debbie Stabenow [D-MI] has introduce bill to repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth Act and potentially even the playing field for Oregonian physicians relatvie to the rest of the U.S. |
Democrats Rejected Good Ideas for Reform
Dec 01, 2009 A Bend resident lament that the baby was thrown out with the bath water as the health care reform bills have progressed through the Senate and House of Representatives |
Radiologist Contracted by BMC is Indicted
Dec 01, 2009 Atlanta doctor is charged with signing reports he never read; BMC says it knows of no quality issues affecting its patients; the American College of Radiology task force chair recommends that patients ask their physicians to check whether their scans were signed out by the Atlanta radiologist and if so have them read independently |
Creating Choices Infuses Care, Quality for Ill, Ailing
Nov 29, 2009 The chair of Regence BlueCross BlueShield Foundation and the director of the Palliative Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco advocate hospice care and are raising awaress of this choice for end-of-life care with a new award |
Sen. Landrieu Recognizes Sen. Wyden's Healthy Americans Act
Nov 29, 2009 "Senator Ron Wyden, who, 2 years ago, before the Presidential election .. put down a bill called the Healthy Americans Act, which I was very proud to support, and I still am so proud of that effort today. .. It is a truly bipartisan effort that would accomplish ... a marketplace that is fixed and reformed, more affordable choices for individuals and small businesses and families, and a real effort to curb the rising and alarming cost to the Federal taxpayers |
Support for All Types of Cancer Needed
Nov 26, 2009 A Bend resident hopes that the generous support Central Oregon has provided to breast cancer patients be extended to all patients with cancer |
Medicare Advantage Premiums are on The Rise
Nov 26, 2009
Most Medicare managed care plans serving Central Oregon had substantial increases in premiums for 2010 to offset increased utilization and lower payments from the Medicare program |
Vote for Health Reform
Nov 25, 2009 A Bend resident applauds the direction healthcare reform is going in Congress |
Walden’s Bad Choice
Nov 25, 2009 A Bend resident writes that Central Oregon interprets Sen. Walden's vote against heathcare reform as a vote for corporations and not people |
Pass Health Reform
Nov 25, 2009 A Bend resident pleads, despite some misgivings, for HR3962 to succeed |
Support for Health Reform in House was Right
Nov 25, 2009 A Bend resident, having experience national healthcare in another coutriy for 20 years before returning to the U.S., can't understand why anyone would accept healthcare the way it is here and not vote for healthcare reform |
Thanks, Rep. Wu
Nov 25, 2009 A small businessman in Bend thanks Rep. David Wu (D, District 1: Northwest Oregon) for voting for healthcare reform bill HR3962 and thereby has hope not to have to move his business to South America |
Can’t Count on Walden
Nov 24, 2009 A Sisters resident expresses disappointment in the nay vote of Rep. Greg Walden (R., Central/Eastern Oregon) on healthcare reform and its implications in falling further behind other countries in healthcare delivery |
Don’t Break Health Care
Nov 24, 2009 A Bend resident believes that healthcare iin the U.S. is not broken, that is is not a right, and equates the public option to auto and homeowner's insurance |
White House Signals it May be OK with Wyden’s Latest
Nov 24, 2009 After negotiating with Senate Finance Committee leadership, Sen. Wyden scaled back his amendment to apply only to workers whose premiums are 8.0-9.8 percent of their total income, which would apply to about 1 million people at the cost of about $5 billion over 10 years |
Walden Should Change Vote
Nov 23, 2009 A Terrebonne resident and retired CPA who is caring for a uninsured friend injured in a motor vehicle accident a week ago implores Rep. Walden to reverse his stance against healthcare reform |
Thanks, Rep. Walden
Nov 23, 2009 A Powell Butte resident write to publicly thank Rep. Walden for voting against the Democratic party sponsored healthcare reform bill in the House of Representatives |
Walden Should Reconsider
Nov 23, 2009 A Bend resident writes that Rep. Walden's vote against healthcare reform indicates insurance lobby influence |
Walden Voted Wrong
Nov 23, 2009 A Bend resident believes Rep. Walden is unduely influenced by the insurance industry, perhaps to retain his excellent health care |
Again Battling Cancer, Westlund Focuses on Job
Nov 22, 2009 Since taking office in January, state Treasurer Ben Westlund has been buffeted by a plunging economy, an inherited mess involving college savings plans and, more recently, a return of the lung cancer that he thought he’d defeated six years ago |
Wyden Agrees to Vote for Health Reform
Nov 21, 2009 Sen. Wyden announced the agreement to prevent a filibuster of the Democrats heathcare reform bill, with every intent to bring up a dramatically scaled-back version of his Free Choice amendment once debate begins, stating that the bill “is the centerpiece idea of modernizing American health care so that in 2009 it is not essentially the same thing it was in 1949.” |
New Model Needed, St. Charles CEO Says
Nov 21, 2009 Jay Henry, CEO of St. Charles Bend, indicates that the Physician-Hospital Alignment of Central Oregon (www.goodmedicineco.org) could provide a national model for healthcare reform |
Walden Doesn’t Care
Nov 21, 2009 A Bend resident points out that Rep. Walden told a Republican-organized anti-health-care-reform rally that the bill should be called “no child left a dime.” |
Shame on Walden
Nov 21, 2009 A Prineville veteran describes how his care in the VA system work well under government control and counters Rep. Walden's sentiments |
Health Insurance Rates Soar as Oregon Regulators Nod
Nov 17, 2009 State regulators have approved every rate increase by Oregon's largest health insurance companies over the past three years, trimming the requests in only seven of 40 cases, records obtained by The Oregonian show |
Too Many Lawyers
Nov 14, 2009 A Redmond resident laments the fact that none of the healthcare bills deal with need for tort reform |
Medicare Failure
Nov 13, 2009 A Bend resident uses his experience with being unable to have Medicare pay for his prostate screening blood test as evidence for how poorly Medicare is run [editorial note: the current evidence indicates that if the digital rectal examination is normal and the person has no specific symptoms of prostate enlargement, a PSA test is not indicated] |
Health Care Bill’s Restrictions on Abortion Need To Go
Nov 13, 2009 The Bulletin's deputy editor argues for abortion payment on a public option since a third of middle-aged adults has either had an abortion or impregnated a woman whose pregnancy ended in abortion, not covering it puts those with private insurance at an advantage, and the personal issues of those facing an unwanted pregnancy should be respected. |
Voters Want Change
Nov 12, 2009 The Bulletin editor(s) find that our country's middle-of-the-roaders have shifted away from the Democratic side they had leaned on last year in part because of the Party's healthcare reform plans |
Oregon is Among 10 States in ‘Fiscal Peril’
Nov 12, 2009 The Bulletin editorial staff thought we should know that our state is now ranked, along with Arizona and Nevada, with California as in significant financial danger; spending on health care may be threatened. |
Fix Health Care
Nov 11, 2009 A Bend resident wishes to appliy virtues in other countries to the U.S. |
Clear One Loses $2.1M
Nov 10, 2009 Bend-based health insurance provider Clear One Health Plans had a 3rd quarter net loss of $2.1 million, or $1.21 per share, due to a decrease in premium revenue secondary to adverse economy and increases in medical and operating expenses |
Make Them Join
Nov 09, 2009 A Bend resident reflects on how a House of Representatives Bill to require all members of the Senate and House to enroll in the public option, which current bills state they will be exempt, should be passed and extended to the President and all government employees |
Can we Trust Congress?
Nov 09, 2009 A Redmond resident uses multiple examples of hypothetical questions to illustrate now our federal goverment shoud not be trusted to do healthcare well |
House Health Care Reform Bill Passes 220-215
Nov 08, 2009 Walden (Republican, central and eastern Oregon) votes against; DeFazio, Blumenauer, Schroeder, and Wu (Oregon Democrats west of the Cascades) vote for the Bill. Voting map of USA and Oregon posted. |
The Real Problem with Health Care
Nov 08, 2009 A Bend resident, who has had a number of letters to the editor pubiished, bases his concern about reducing healtcare costs and letting government do it on his personal experience |
Insurance Companies
Nov 05, 2009 John Day resident proposes a direct, electronic doctor billing process to a nonprofit health plan |
Medicare
Nov 05, 2009 Redmond Veteran with VA health insurance pleads for healthcare reform |
Walden Stands by His Legislative Transparency Efforts
Nov 05, 2009 Sen. Walden said Democratic leaders’ decision to strip his amendments to require rural representation on the bodies that will advise Congress on Medicare policy and on Medicare payment rates shows the need for requiring greater transparency in Congress |
A Medicare Fix or More Folly?
Nov 02, 2009 Oregon patients should care about the fix because Oregon doctors who treat Medicare patients get paid less than in most other states and make up the difference by charging non-Medicare patients more |
Getting Reform Done
Oct 27, 2009 Bend resident is appalled by the "non-partisan" Senate bill released this week to the apparent benefit of the health insurance industry and not patients |
Let Us Read the Bill
Oct 26, 2009 Bend resident points out that cuts to Medicare and increased taxes on employers and insurance companies will happen immediately. but the benefits of the plan don’t go into effect until after the 2010 and 2012 elections |
Government’s Failure Rate
Oct 26, 2009 Redmond resident can find no evidence that our government has been helpful or successful and questions why it should be given responsibility for health care |
We Earned It
Oct 25, 2009 Prineville resident counters another letter-to-the-editor writer's opinion (see Oct 10 item in the column) re: Medicare as a "subsidy" |
Single-Payer Health Care Should be Considered a Last Resort
Oct 24, 2009 Bend resident advocates tort reform, allowing private individuals to collectively negotiate the price of health insurance policies, allowing health care costs to be a deductible tax item [it already is], and requiring health insurance become portable across state lines |
Bad Coverage
Oct 24, 2009 Bend resident who describes her recent experience with colonscopy that her AARP healh insurance policy did not cover the $1000s charge for anesthesiology and facility use places the blame squarely on the for-profit insurance industry |
Westlund Says Cancer Has Returned
Oct 23, 2009 State Treasurer Ben Westlund, Tumalo resident, said he is undergoing treatment for a recurrence of cancer but is staying on the job and his personal experience underscores the need for healthcare reform. Letter to staff expresses concern 'but not worry.' |
Alternate Reality
Oct 21, 2009 Redmond resident is glad O'Reilly, Beck and Hannity weren't around when in 1935 and 1965 Social Security and Medicare were created by our government to help our senior citizens |
Governor Backs Medicaid Reform
Oct 19, 2009 But while other governors have decried the potential costs to state budgets from health care reform bills that could add thousands of people to state Medicaid rolls, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has been relatively quiet. He is more concerned about 2011, when hundreds of millions in federal aid runs out. |
Health Care Reform
Oct 19, 2009 A Central Oregon physician explains why he is for a public insurance option. Is is not only the humanitarian thing to do, it would force insurance companies to attenuate their greed. |
Obama Plan
Oct 19, 2009 A Bend resident pleads for honest reporting and fact checking of erroneous claims of dire effects of pending healthcare legislation |
The Left’s Frustrations, Embodied in a Liberal Lawmaker from Oregon
Oct 18, 2009 Political reality has set in for liberal Rep. Earl Blumenauer, whose faith in Obama’s election and big Democratic majorities in Congress would yield quick advances in the progressive agenda. Blumenauer, 61, now finds himself fighting to retain one of the touchstones for liberals this year, a public insurance option in the health care overhaul. |
What Health Care Reform Needs To Do is Keep the Costs Down
Oct 18, 2009 The president of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon argues that Regence is actively collaborating on every front for reform: state and federal legislation, better industry practices that extend coverage and increase efficiency, and engaging providers and consumers in decisions that affect their health and their pocketbooks. |
Stay Out of Health Care
Oct 17, 2009 Powell Butte resident pleads for exclusion of government involvement in healthcare |
Universal Care
Oct 17, 2009 Bend resident passsionately pleads for univerisal healthcare |
Why are Americans so Scared of the Word ‘Socialist’?
Oct 17, 2009 A Bend resident and independent explains that socialism is not what most Americans seem to think and should not be feared; on the contrary every government program this country was founded on — including what our forefathers set in place— is based on a form of socialism |
Oregon’s Lawmakers Weigh Merits of Health Bill Public Option
Oct 16, 2009 Oregon Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have supported the public option, either in committee or publicly, but realizing that the healthcare bills will need compromise to be legislated are both considering provisions to letting states opt out of a public insurance option or design their own programs |
Obama’s Health Care
Oct 12, 2009 Madras resident interprets the President's hope for healthcare reform to take from the elderly to pay others |
Medicare Problems
Oct 10, 2009 Reader corrects statements about Medicare made by a prior guest columnist |
Medicare Advantage Changes Loom for Many Oregon Seniors
Oct 08, 2009 Impending changes to the rules governing Medicare managed care plans mean more than 1,200 Central Oregon seniors will lose their current health plan next year and will be kicked back into traditional Medicare unless they choose another plan by Dec. 31. |
Wyden Stays Mum on his Key Health Care Reform Vote
Oct 07, 2009 Wyden blasted the Finance Committee bill last week after his reform proposal, the Free Choice amendment, was torpedoed without a vote just before 2 a.m. on Friday. As a Senate Finance Committee member, he could tip the balance - but which way? |
Health Care Challenge Reflected in 4 Senators’ Concerns
Oct 07, 2009 Sen. Wyden is one of four senators on the Finance Committee, three of whom are Democrats, who may block the healhcare reform bill. He warns that the bill would lock many workers into health plans selected by their employers, without allowing them to shop for better, cheaper plans. |
Don’t Ignore Wyden’s Health Care Proposal
Oct 06, 2009 Ceremoniously ignored by his fellow Democrats, Wyden’s amendment would have let people who don’t like their employers’ health insurance get a voucher to buy their own approved insurance plans. This not only would have given consumers choice, it would simultaneously create competition by compelling insurers to compete on price and plans. [Bend Bulletin editorial] |
Last-Minute Appointment Takes Bend Doctor to D.C.
Oct 06, 2009 Anita Henderson, MD, High Lakes Medical Center family practitioner, was one of two physicians from Oregon who were invited to and attended the White House briefing on healthcare reform by President Obama. Dr. Henderson would have preferred the Wyden Healthy Americans Act, but given its demise in Congress, is now in favor of the House bill (HR3400). |
The Pigs and Slop of Health Care
Oct 05, 2009 John Mathews, a Bend resident, has composed one of the best summaries, certainly the most humorous, of our healthcare reform quagmire ... in this case the quagmire infrastructure of a pig pen. |
Tell Obama
Sep 26, 2009 Letter to letter expands coverage of Sen. Merkley's Townhall meeting in Bend at Summiit High School |
Wyden's Upbeat about His 'Free-Choice' Plan's Chances
Sep 26, 2009 Wyden's free-choice amendment would allow people who have health coverage from their employer to go into the bill's insurance exchange and see if they can find a policy, or a company, they like better |
Key Lawyer in Abortion Ruling Gives Bend Talk
Sep 25, 2009 Sarah Weddington, Roe v. Wade attorney, and Rep. Judy Stiegler advocate for women's rights and the education, including understanding of history, needed to protect their rights |
More Uninsured in Deschutes than National, State Averages
Sep 23, 2009 Nearly 20% of Deschutes County residents lacked health insurance in 2008, vs. 16.4% of Oregonians and 15% of U.S. residents. Data for Crook and Jefferson counties were not available but had our neighbors been included the uninsured rate for Central Oregon is substantiallly higher. Health insurance premiums in Oregon increased 139% over the past decade, the 2nd highest increase in the nation while their income grew by 39% (100% less). |
Battle Lines Form as Baucus Revises Bill in Bid for Support
Sep 23, 2009 Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whose bipartisan “Healthy Americans Act” alternative health care bill would promote competition in the private marketplace, said that the Baucus bill doesn’t do enough to promote competition. Final legislation likely is months away. |
Ron Wyden is ... Everywhere
Sep 17, 2009 As a leading critic of legislation that is considered the best option to become law, Sen. Wyden has been in serious demand. |
Alarm Bell on Health Reform
Sep 16, 2009 Report for the Washington Post supports Sen. Wyden's Healthy Americans Act The status quo caucus may be anit-Baucus but can legislation resemble the President's speech? |
Cascade Hospitals Rank High in Quality
Sep 13, 2009 Cascade Healthcare Community, which includes St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, St. Charles Medical Center-Redmond and Pioneer Memorial Hospital (Redmond), ranks among the top 50 hospital systems in the U.S. and its hospitals are ranked by patients in the top tier statewide (data at www.comedsoc.org/Cascade_Healthcare_Ranking.htm?m=54&s=435). |
Kitzhaber has Uphill Battle for Governor
Sep 04, 2009 No one knows whether today’s popularity will have disappeared by the 2010 election, when Kitzhaber must again face the voters. His opponents are already busy reminding voters of his unfortunate quip six years ago about Oregon being ungovernable. |
Health Reform May Help Family Doctors
Aug 22, 2009 With Washington State as an example, the rate of medical students going into primary care is at an all time low, <10% nationwide. Proposal in the Oregon Legislature authorizes grants to community health centers to set up training programs (instead of just hospitals) and provides training grants for primary-care residents. |
How We Can Achieve Bipartisan Health Reform
Aug 09, 2009 Twelve U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle (6 Democrats, 5 Republicans, 1 Independent) who have widely varying philosophies offer a concrete demonstration that it is possible to find common ground and pass real health reform this year. The reports of the death of bipartisan health reform have been greatly exaggerated. Now is the time to resuscitate it, before the best opportunity in years is wasted. |
Physician Alliance
Aug 05, 2009 Bend resident reminds us that it is unacceptable if medical administrators, directly or indirectly, interfere with this trust Cemtral Oregonians place with their physicians in the name of competition and profit. |
Doctor Mistreated
Aug 02, 2009 My Nicklel's Worth: I don’t understand why the administrators in the medical community cannot see the value in good people as opposed to volume |
Area Doctors, Hospital Form Alliance
Jul 22, 2009 The Physician Alliance Mission: Our mission is to be a unified, principles-based group of physicians that works with Cascade Healthcare Community Inc. and other partners to build a physician-directed, community-based health care system in Central Oregon that will improve the health of our community, enhance the patient care experience and reduce or control the cost of care.Code of conduct: We will abide by the principles of trust, mutual respect, accountability and loyalty to the group as a whole. |
Wyden’s Health Care Plan is Back
Jul 18, 2009 When it comes to health care reform proposals, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is like an indie movie auteur: his creations get great reviews from critics, but haven’t caught on at the multiplex. |
A High Turnover at BMC
Jul 02, 2009 Once a model of stability, Bend Memorial Clinic, the region’s largest group of doctors, has become a veritable revolving door for physicians. Changes in the organizational structure and culture at the clinic have led to a staggering level of physician turnover, calling into question the continuity of patient care. |
2nd Chance for Wyden’s Health Plan?
Jun 21, 2009
Turmoil over reform efforts in D.C. could make Oregon senator’s bill mandating coverage more alluring, despite criticism from left and right |
Slump Dashes Oregon Dreams of Californians
Jun 20, 2009 The economic freefall has made Bend a succinct symbol for the economic perils of “lifestyle destinations” in recreation-heavy communities where jobs have been heavily tilted toward construction and services and where many of the new residents were self-made exiles from California cashing in on their overpriced real estate. |
Physicians Pushed to the Brink
May 17, 2009 With more patients and paperwork - and often less pay - than ever, primary care doctors are faced with an especially dire situation in this area. |
Preserve Hospice
Apr 30, 2009 A Bend resident pleads for restraint in cutting Medicare hospiice benefits |
Sen. Telfer's Health Insurance Bill (SB 862) Passes Unanimously in Senate
Apr 23, 2009 Relief in sight for uninsured workers as bill advancesBy Nick Budnick / The BulletinPublished: April 23. 2009
Chris Telfer is new to the Oregon Senate, but the first-term Republican from Bend has been crafting her health legislation, Senate Bill 862, for more than three years through the nonprofit she co-founded, HealthMatters of Central Oregon. |
A Positive Move
Feb 28, 2009 Dr. Peter Boehm moves to Mosaic Medical in Bend, expanding low-income services |
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