MVHCA NEWS

January 2014
Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates
Editor: Dianne Farrell dianne.farrell@gmail.com

The annual Corvallis Christmas Parade the evening of November 30 was chilly but dry as about thirty of us gathered to march. Some of us were inside big wrapped gift boxeswishing the gift of health care for allwhile others carried big signs. Amy Roy wore the fake buns to show how well private insurance covers you, as she and others passed out gift wishes to onlookers. The youngest in our parade was sevenand the oldest of us arent telling. We chanted our slogans--Everybody in, nobody out, thats what we are all about!-- led by Mike Huntington, to spread Christmas cheer. You should have seen John Booker! Would you think the big guy could prance like that?!

January Doings:
January 8: Messaging Webinar with Tori Geter. No point in a message that turns off people who might otherwise be with us! This session was so valued that it is being repeated for those of us who missed it! Corvallis Public Library, 7:00 8:30. January 16: Celebrate Corvallis The Chamber of Commerce will award a Community Organization of the Year (also a Business of the Year, etc.). We are in the running! Billed as fun and entertaining, this event costs $60; if youd like to go, contact Ron Green (541-961-9015 or rongreen@peak.org), who will represent us officially. Its at OSUs CH2M Hill Alumni Center, 7:00 PM. If eight people go, we could get a table at a discount. Hey, what if we won? January 18: HCAO Coalition meeting postponed from the snowed-out one in December. Albany, Mennonite Village (5353 Columbus Ave) turn in and find Lakeview Center at 2180 54th Ave SE. 11:00 4:00 PM. Includes lunch. You must register: call Betty Johnson 541-752-3207 or btt.johnson.22@gmail.com Hear and discuss strategies to win Health Care for All Oregon in 2016! January 27: General Meeting, Unitarian Fellowship, 79 pm. Orientation for interested folks 6:00 pm.

Upcoming, Dates Indefinite:

April: Folk singer George Mann will do a benefit in Corvallis for us in the last week of April. May: Prof. Gerald Friedman, Prof. of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst will be speaking in multiple locations in Oregon May 1219. He has done a study of how much money we could save by expanding Medicare to cover everyone in the USA ($570 billion). Date for Corvallis appearance not yet fixed.

Ask Your Doctor!

Heres an assignment each of us can take on: Ask your doctor if he/she favors universal publicly-funded health care! This is not hard, and can be fun. Keep it light! If your doctor says no, find out why and have a few statistics in your pocket that make our case:

The USA spends more on health care per capita than any other developed country--and they all cover everyone! We spend 2 times the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average! Even though we have the best medicine in the world for those who can afford it, our medical outcomes overall are embarrassing. The World Health Organization (WHO) 2000 rating, best to worst, put USA at #37--behind Colombia, Costa Rica, Morocco. Ouch! The USA is #51 in life expectancy! Behind Turkey, Portugal, Greece. Good grief! In infant mortality the USA is #10 because so many American women cannot afford prenatal care. Cuba does better. Report your findings, if you dont mind, to John Booker, Outreach Committee 541-908-6940 Source: Rankings (except overall medical outcomes) from the CIA World Fact Book 2013

Saving Money By Delivering Health Care Through Coordinated Care Organizations: Early Results
Oregons new mode of health care delivery now has data from its first year in operation. Coordinated Care Organizations, which serve all Medicaid/Oregon Health Plan patients, show a 9% decrease in ER visits compared with 2011. Spending for ER services is down 18% as patients are guided into primary care homes for services. Primary care visits increased 18% as patients learned that they could turn to their primary care homes. This is the change we had hoped for. Hospitalization for chronic heart conditions were down almost 30%; for adult asthma14%. The number of providers doing business via electronic health records has doubled: from 28% in 2011 to 57% by June 2013. This new system replacing the old fee for service is, as the Oregon Health Authority planned, transparent and accountable. As this transformation spreads to more of the population (state employees and teachers next) these savings will be a major factor in holding down health care costs, while improving health care.

You May Have Read Information to the Contrary, But. (Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jan. 3 AP story; also, Oregonian
The bad news about a surge in the use of medical services comes from a study begun in Oregon five years ago with a limited expansion of Medicaid clients. There was a surge in the use of all medical services. But more so to the ERs because uninsured people didnt have primary doctors and were accustomed to getting any care they did get at the ER. Since then an aggressive program has helped ER visitors get established with a Primary Care Home and counseled patients on appropriate use of services available to them. This has been effective. The bubble of first-time patients unused to having any coverage has also worked itself out as patients sought and got treatment for conditions they had long suffered from. When Canada and Massachusetts first extended their health care systems to cover everyone, this same phenomenona bulge in usewas experienced.

Poetry and Medicine: The Judgment of Solomon

By Adam Possner, MD
JAMA. December 4, 2013, Vol 310, No. 21

One day two supplicants came before my patient while he sat on his throne at his kitchen table. One was a near-empty medication bottle; the other an unpaid electricity bill. Sir, pleaded the bottle, you must refill your pills. Not so, countered the bill. You must choose paying me.

Nonsense! yelled the bottle. Your health is paramount. Said the bill: What are pills if you freeze in your home? For an hour my patient weighed these opposing views, weighed them in wisdom gained from living hand to mouth. Finally he stood up, got a pen and a knife, paid the bill, then cut in half the pills, which were scored.

What the H Is the Basic Health Program?

Can you tolerate information on one more health care plan? (If only we had ONE program that covered ALL, how much simpler life could be!)
This one is worth doing, because it covers people who will be missed by Affordable Care Act. The Basic Health Program is allowed for under the ACA, but has to be specially negotiated. It would cover those low-income adults who will find their eligibility for Medicaid/Oregon Health Plan switching off and on with every minor fluctuation in earnings. It would also cover (legal) immigrants and refugees. And it would enable Oregon to extend its cost-saving delivery system, the Coordinated Care Organizations. Rep. Mitch Greenlick (Portland) will introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session to have the Oregon Health Authority commission a study of adopting the Basic Health Plan. Given passage, the results would be known by January 2015.
Rep. Mitch Greenlick

Get with us!

Attend our general Fourth Monday meetings! Unitarian Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Dr., 79 PM

Orientation for new members at 6 PM. Next meeting: January 27

Connect with MVHCA via Facebook (www.facebook.com/MVHCA) and Twitter (twitter.com/MVHCA) Snailmail address: MVHCA, P.O. Box 242, Corvallis, OR 97339 See our website: www.mvhca.org for information about us and to donateusing Paypal or your credit card.