Tag Archives: Single-Payer Health Care

Editorial: Choice of legislators will be health care choice

A job opening at the state of Oregon was posted earlier this month for the executive director to guide the state to a single-payer health care system. By Sept. 15, 2026, there is supposed to be a plan for the Legislature to consider. No state has made such a change. Oregon might be the first. […]
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Moonshot or magical thinking? Single-payer fans and foes testify in Oregon Senate

Proponents of single-payer health care are urging lawmakers to take the next step toward make such a system a reality. That step would be passage of Senate Bill 704, which would establish a Universal Health Plan Governance Board to create a comprehensive proposal by fall of 2025, with the goal of launching it in 2027. […]
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Editorial: Can state government be the hero and save Oregonians $2 billion on health care?

The heroes of the plan for single-payer health care in Oregon are government employees. Government employees will supposedly save more than $2 billion in costs by replacing much of the existing health insurance industry with themselves. The idea is profit margins would be removed. Less might be spent to process claims. Much of the work […]
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Guest column: Oregon single-payer plan aims for better access and quality and lower costs

I thank author Bill Eddie of the Sept. 19 Bulletin op-ed highlighting Oregon’s not-so-secret SB 770 single-payer task force. Contrary to the op-ed’s speculation, our work is definitely not conducted “quietly and without fanfare.” Our meetings are boisterous and public. I should know: I am one of 14 gubernatorial-appointed voting members (though I do not […]
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Guest column: State committee is creating a single-payer health system for Oregon

I am one of 13 gubernatorial appointees and voting members of the Joint Task Force on Universal Health Care created by the 2019 Legislature. We thank you for your recent editorial drawing attention to our important work. In June, we released a status report presenting our current thinking on the design of a universal health […]
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Guest Column: Why should Oregon work so hard to bring single-payer healthcare?

The Bulletin’s editorial, “Single-payer plan in the works for Oregon,” identifies major challenges confronting the SB 770 Task Force. As a task force member, I can confirm that changing Oregon’s health care industry is a heavy lift. Health care is the largest industry in Bend. It’s the largest industry in the US. It’s the largest […]
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Our View: Smaller steps better in Oregon’s single-payer plan | Editorials

A state task force is meeting regularly, charged by the Legislature to figure out how a single -payer health care plan might work in Oregon. It’s a big deal. Source: Our View: Smaller steps better in Oregon’s single-payer plan | Editorials | lagrandeobserver.com

Editorial: Oregon should not rush into big healthcare change

Oregon lawmakers are taking the first steps toward providing a single-payer health system for everyone living in Oregon in the form of Senate Bill 770. As appealing as the idea may sound, there are no simple answers to improving health care. It takes time to get it right and the Legislature is about out of […]
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Commentary: CON: Single-payer health care won’t pass muster in California or other states;

Not so long ago Democrats would run for cover whenever a colleague proposed a government-run, single-payer health care system. Today, they scramble to out-single-payer other Democrats. Under such a system, the government pays most if not all health care bills for nearly every resident and taxpayers pay higher taxes to finance it.V ermont became the […]
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Commentary: PRO: Single-payer coverage is best path forward for California and maybe others

Everywhere you look, it seems another state has a single-payer health insurance proposal. New York, Maryland, Nevada and Alaska have universal health care on the agenda. And now California, home to one of the lowest rates of people without health insurance in the nation, is seeking to take that rate to zero. A slate of […]
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