Oregon nurses take lead in fight for universal healthcare

I found the following article on the Portland Tribune site. It details how the Oregon Nurses Association is working to put an initiative on the November ballot that promotes affordable healthcare for all.

Nurses brainstorm universal care
By SUSAN KING

... Our state seems ready to make a serious and sincere effort to improve health and health care. Oregon’s nurses are stepping up to make it happen.

We are asking that you join us. State Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-District 33, along with state Sen. Alan Bates, D-District 3, and state Sen. Ben Westlund, I-District 27 (a candidate for governor), have proposed an initiative called Healthcare Options Provided Efficiently. It would place health care on the same level of importance as public education by making access to affordable health care a fundamental right.

The Oregon Nurses Association and many other associations of health care professionals and health care consumer groups are taking this effort into the streets in an effort to collect the signatures needed to place HOPE on the November ballot.

HOPE initiates a crucial conversation about the future of health care. Will we continue to have a disconnected, and often overlapping, quilt of services? Do we continue to pick who gets care and who doesn’t based on traits such as age, income or choice of employer? Do we accept as inevitable that the cost of health care will rise beyond the ability for most individuals and employers to pay? ...

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