John Kitzhaber addressed
By Ame Phitwong
UP welcomed former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber to address the current state of Oregon's health care system on Tuesday in the Buckley Center Auditorium. Joanne Warner, interim dean of the School of Nursing, said that UP invited Kitzhaber to discuss the movement he's leading to reform health care in Oregon and the nation.
"Health care is going to be the single leading contributor to the $9 trillion debt in our nation," Kitzhaber said during the lecture.
Kitzhaber won the Oregon Democratic Party nomination in 1994 and served as governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003. During his first term, Kitzhaber created several new policy initiatives concerning the Oregon Health Plan. He started the Oregon Option - an attempt to increase accountability and reduce bureaucracy in delivering government services.
After implementing these initiatives, the state's welfare case loads were reduced by 50 percent, saving the state more than $200 million. Kitzhaber also introduced the Oregon Children's Plan. This plan helped identify at-risk children and their families as well as provide them with assistance.
In his address, Kitzhaber went over the current state of health care in the country. To show how skewed access to health care is, he used access to public education as an example. He explained that education is accessible, regardless of income or status. Every person has the right to 12 years of education. With health care, he described the system as using "categorical eligibility" to provide accessibility.
In order to be eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, a person must fit into certain categories in order to receive access. To receive Medicare, the person must be 65 or older. Medicaid categories include low-income parents, children, people with disabilities and seniors who need long-term care.
Kitzhaber highlighted three major points he felt were pertinent to the situation. The first point was to control the costs of health care. The next point was to avoid attributing the problem of the growing costs to insurance. His final point was to emphasize to audience members that they were not powerless in the situation.
He wanted the audience to know it had the ability to make a difference by spreading awareness and by bringing light to the issue.
Senior Jackie Buchheit thought the lecture was enlightening.
"It makes me think about the basics of the Golden Rule - treat others the way you want to be treated, but in the health care sense, help others the way you want to be helped," Buchheit said.
Although Kitzhaber did not offer direct solutions on how to tackle the issue, he explained that the initial major step was to raise awareness and provide a place so that this problem could be discussed.
"We first must agree on what we want the new system to look like. We must describe a clear vision of the new health care system and expose the contradictions and inequities of the current system," Kitzhaber said.
Warner explained that the current health care system made sense at one time.
"But the world has changed, the demographics have changed, and we need to change our system to match today," she said.
Senior George Donnor thought the lecture was very inspiring.
"It brings up a lot of good points, especially economically about how our system is going to crash," he said. "It's hard to know exactly what to do with (the information given). It's not a simple thing to make the changes he's talking about. Right now, it's hard to even talk about it and ask the probable solutions."
Kitzhaber explained that the system can't be changed overnight.
He believes that if a safe place can be created for the free exchange of dialogue and ideas, then over time the system can be better.
"It's not like we don't know what's going to happen," Kitzhaber said. "It's like Hurricane Katrina. The health care system is below sea level. The system isn't going to fix itself; it's designed so it won't and to protect the status quo."
Kitzhaber was born in Colfax, Wash., and graduated from South Eugene High School in 1965.
He received a bachelor's degree in biology from Dartmouth College in 1969 and then went on to graduate from the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland in 1973.
He settled in Roseburg and practiced emergency medicine for over 15 years.
