Oregon health proposal

Make me feel better about this. Remember, Oregon is a retirement state. Scrap Medicare? Joe Trippi? Our governor is already in trouble. Am I wrong to panic???

http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/114403299089660.xml?oregonian?lcplfp&coll=7

Why oh why can't I have dynamic and pragmatic Mass pols. *sigh*

I see why you're wary and sighing though, Trippi isn't good news.

Way down in the article.

"He has called for scrapping Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government's 40-year-old health plans for millions of older and low-income Americans, and using money in those programs to provide a basic level of coverage for all Oregonians"

Kitzhaber is our ex-governor, very very popular Democrat. So many things come to mind, mostly a snowball affect. Our current governor is teetering, as are both houses. We have the Senate, they have the House. Now this, yikes!!

Perhaps he's well itentioned but this worries me.

Depends on what base is, but it's going to deprive people of cures. Nothing else would be affordable. I'd love to have health care, it would be great. But what good is it go to the doctor if you discover you have cancer and can't get treated. Makes no sense. And the seniors would absolutely freak over this. I can't understand it. Kitzhaber is smarter than this. And in an election year. Gads.

I think perhaps Kitzhaber means well but doesnt see the bad side of this and I worry about Trippi's involvement in this too, something about that man that I dont trust or like.

He's got a great heart, he's a doctor, was really good for the state. He crafted the Oregon Health Plan, long time ago, before Dean even, IIRC. It got rave reviews, to be honest, I don't quite get what the fuss was about. Still, I know he really cares and is trying to move to single payer, but I don't think this is the right way. And Joe Trippi, I just shake my head at that one.

I think if he does the idea planning himself than this could work out great for your state.

If we screw up, we get THIS guy for gov

http://www.mannixfororegon.org/

You know what, I should look at the plan myself. Shame on me, I know better than to trust the media. Words like "scrap" are not professional journalism and I know our paper sucks. Okay, I feel half-way better. :)

Mandatory Minimums. He is singularly responsible for passing them in our state, that has teen-agers going to prison for decades. See that nice round letter in the first part of his signature, followed by all those pointy letters? Yeah, phony nice guy hiding a shark. Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Terrible workman's comp reform that has left the system basically useless. My son got hurt LAST AUGUST and is still waiting for his first hearing. Welfare reform. It goes on and on.

Is your current governor popular or not? This guy sounds like an asshole.

We're stuck in the middle of a land use war. Years ago, Oregon passed a state-wide land use law that required every city/county to have a specific plan for growth, the plans get redone every so often. They were having problems with some bigwig sticking a development 5 miles from town, then, when all the water and power were carried to it, they'd start in with developing the in-between because "there's that development out there, so what's the difference". Lots of sprawl and unhappy people. Now, they're back, wanting to develop more. And people, being short-sighted doofs that they are, bought into not being told what to do. So now, we basically have NO zoning. Delightful, yes? And the governor has to try to figure out how to implement this new law and convince people that NO zoning is a horrible idea. That, and budget problems, 6-7% unemployment, schools that aren't so hot, etc. When I lived here in the 80's, Oregon always had schools in the top 5 of the country. Not anymore. Lots of problems and he doesn't have the charisma Kitzhaber had to hold it all together. Along with a really relentless right wing, as right as anything you've got in Virginia, believe me. We've got some real lulus here.

I believe it too, right wing nuts can be anywhere.

So I've already been a little worried about that. Primaries can really rough things up, as you know. One of the candidates, who I had actually thought I might vote for, said he was going to work with Kitzhaber to produce a health care plan. So now I have to take another look. The other, he's from the beloved "firebrand wing". You know what I'm talking about. So having a really controversial health plan proposal doesn't sound like such a good idea to me, not right now.

Your candidates should be focusing on that.