Major Health Care Issues Remain Behind the Scenes
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 12:35PM
Reports persist the Oregon legislature is on the verge of appointing a major joint committee to pursue agreement on at least two major health care policy issues that have remained in the shadows for weeks.
One is the so-called "health care transformation" led by Oregon Health Authority Director Dr. Bruce Goldberg and Governor John Kitzhaber's health care policy assistant Mike Bonetto. Each Wednesday, they have led the "group of 43" in a review of how to achieve the governor's objective to control health care costs and avoid eating a larger chunk of the state budget.
The second is a sales tax for health care, proposed several months ago by Portland attorney John DiLorenzo, but so far not aired in any public forum this session.
Both issues are fraught with political peril.