Editor's note: In November, voters will be presented with four statewide ballot measures. This article deals with Measure 111 which was referred to the people by the Oregon Legislature during the 2021 Session as SJR 12.

Oregon Measure 111 the right to healthcare, amends the Oregon Constitution to require the state to ensure affordable healthcare access to all residents, balanced against requirements to fund schools and other essential services. The measure made it to the ballot through legislative action with plenty of opposition. The Legislative Resolution that created Measure 111 was Chief Sponsored by Representative Rob Nosse (D-Portland) and Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Portland).

Current state law outlines the general requirements for health insurance policies and provides health care for low income and disabled residents who meet eligibility requirements. Measure 111 will amend the Oregon Constitution to establish health care as a fundamental right, and obligates the state to provide Oregon residents “access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.” This amendment requires the state to balance that obligation against the public interest in funding public schools and other essential public services. If the state is sued to enforce the amendment, the court may not order a remedy that interferes with the state’s requirement to balance healthcare funding against funding for public schools and other essential public services.

While this measure establishes a new constitutional obligation for the state, it does not specify what the state must do to comply, how that compliance will be measured, or identify specific steps the state must undertake should this measure pass.

Representative Kim Wallan (R-Medford) sat on the committee writing the explanatory statement for the Measure. She writes in opposition, “This measure creates a new right, a "fundamental" right, in the Oregon constitution. It differs in one significant way from all other rights. Rights are limits on the laws the government can pass. Rights are freedoms from government. Measure 111 gives every person in the state a right of access to appropriate health care. This requires the state to force some people to provide health care to others. It means the state will have to send doctors and nurses to remote areas, at a salary set by the state, to give everyone their right to health care. After all, if you have a right to have health care, how are you going to get it if someone else doesn't give it to you? In fact, to those obligated to provide the service, and to those obligated to pay for it, it is the opposite of a freedom. It is coercion.”

Those in support are stakeholders that gain to profit. Dwight Dill, retired Union County Mental Health Director writes, “According to a report by the Oregon Health Authority, Oregonians' personal health care expenditures outpaced the rest of the US from 2013 to 2019. While the US saw an increase of 27% during this time, Oregonians' expenditures increased by 34%... In 2019, 60% of all bankruptcies in Oregon included medical debt. In the same year, almost 16% of Oregonians reported delaying medical treatment due to costs.” He then claims Measure 111 will not increase your taxes, so where does he propose the funding will come from to bring down healthcare costs and prevent bankruptcies?

A committee of five led by State Treasurer Tobias Read determined the financial impact to state and local expenditure and revenue is indeterminate. The measure does not require additional state government revenues or expenditures. The impact of the measure will depend on future legislative action to establish additional health benefits and determine how they will be paid for.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Supporters have taken this to say this measure does not force the state to spend any money, but to be in compliance would require legislative funding to implement. Funding a heavy and rich in benefits system isn’t an answer to reducing healthcare costs. It would force taxpayers to continue to pay for the rampant fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid, Medicare and insurance systems. It is projected that to fund this measure would more than double the state budget. How can the state balance this obligation with its other obligations to fund public schools and other essential public services without raising taxes substantially? Taxpayers will have no recourse in the courts against harmful legislative actions.

Measure 111 will appear on the ballot this fall for adoption or rejection by the voters.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-10-16 06:13:21

Last Update: 2022-10-15 16:53:08