Excellent News!!

Dear Supporters,

I write to you with some excellent news concerning the WhyNotPortland campaign. After six long months of gathering signatures, raising funds and speaking out on the importance of children’s health, we’ve won a major victory for Portland’s working families.

We are proud to announce that Portland City Council has agreed to pass a resolution calling for a plan to provide low-cost, quality health insurance for the uninsured children of Portland. A Policy Committee and Technical Support Team will be created to research and draft a proposal to provide health-care coverage for children who live in Portland and are currently uninsured. Most importantly, the resolution calls for the Kids Care Committee (the official name of the research team) to draft a plan that uses the following guidelines:

• Coverage for public school children
• Coverage for children age 0 to school-age
• Coverage for preventative care visits with a primary care physician with a minimal co-pay
• Coverage with a reasonable deductible, but in no case to be greater than $7,500; for diagnostic services, specialty care and hospitalizations
• Possible coverage for prescription drugs
• Final proposal delivered to Council by December 1, 2008
• Coverage to begin no later than September 1, 2009

In response to Council’s resolution, the campaign has agreed to suspend its signature-gathering drive and withhold the initiative from the November 2008 general election ballot. Our work, however, is not done. In the coming months, we will collaborate with Council to ensure that a plan is enacted and the children of Portland get the health-care coverage they deserve.

When this comes to fruition, it will be a direct result of the efforts of all of the volunteers, contributors and endorsers of our campaign. We know that we could not have come this far without you. Thank you for your support.

Yours Sincerely,

Gregg Coodley M.D.

Local Solutions Can Work for America's Health Crisis

Healthcare professionals all over America are becoming frustrated with the inability of our current system to provide treatment for those who need it.. This so frustrated one Pennsylvania doctor that she quit her practice and sold her own home to open a clinic for the uninsured.

Pheonixville, Pennsylvania physician, Dr. Lorna Stuart, sold her own house, quit her practice and, with friend Reverand Marie Swazye, raised $400,000.00 to turn Reverend Swayze's dilapidated Victorian parish mansion into ""The Clinic: Medical Center for the Uninsured," which has already provided 40,000 free or low-cost visits to patients for primary medical care across eight specialties. The clinic charges patients a sliding scale based on income. "Since there's no need to spend a lot of time doing paperwork, we have time to talk to the patient and really hear what they're saying," says Stuart. "So the patients go away feeling they've been heard, that they've been helped." (CNN, "So Many People Fall Through The Cracks,")

Closer to home the "WhyNotPortland" campaign seeks to provide healthcare for all of Portland's school children . Like any other political initiative or campaign we need funds and volunteers to function. If you can spare a little time to collect some signatures ( family and friends ) on one of our petition sheets please visit our action page and sign up as a volunteer. If you can spare a financial contribution no matter how small please visit our home page and follow the 'Donate" link.

OHSU Study Finds Cuts to Oregon Health Plan Increase Trips to Emergency Room

A study by the Oregon Health Sciences University found that visits to the emergency room by uninsured patients increased about 50% betwen 2003 and 2005, following cuts to the Oregon Health Plan in 2003. Rates for insured patients did not increase.

"While emergency hospitalizations for uninsured patients increased by 50 percent, rates for other groups remained about the same," said Robert A. Lowe, M.D., director of the OHSU Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine. "This suggests that uninsured patients seeking care at emergency departments after the cuts were sicker."

("OHSU Study Finds Increase in Emergency Department Visits by Uninsured Following OHP Cuts,")

Preventative care is cheaper than the emergency room. A visit to a doctor's office for a child's cough may result in a bill in the area of $100, not counting the cost of a prescription. A trip to the emergency room, after that child's cough has turned into pneumonia, will run in the area upwards of $1,000.00, and never mind seperate bills for the doctor, the lab or prescriptions, possibly another $800 to $1,000.00.

If you don't have the $100 and can't find it, you try to treat things yourself. Sometimes that works, sometimes you really must see a doctor. There's not much more horrible for a parent than to watch your baby suffer with a 106F fever and agonize over where you can take them to see a doctor, or wonder at the emergency room whether not getting them to a doctor earlier will result in their death during this visit.

Providing good preventative care to Portland's children will result in lower healthcare costs and better quality care for all Portlanders. Hospitals will not be required to waste valuable staff and other resources on as many emergency room calls and will not lose as much money. Healthy children do better in school and are more likely to become successful adults, more likely to contribute well to society.

Read the OHSU study HERE.