C. Oregonians, others weigh in on ‘right’ to health care

The Oregon House has passed a bill proposing to make affordable health care a constitutional right. If the bill passes the Senate and voters approve this fall, Oregon will be the first state in the country to make health care a constitutional right.

But there are still quite a few hoops to jump through. First, the majority-Democrat Senate would have to approve the bill. Then it would put before Oregon voters in November to decide on the constitutional change.

The wording suggested by the 35 House Democrats who approved the bill Tuesday states:

“It is the obligation of the state to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to effective, medically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right.”

Crook County’s Lutheran Community Services Director Bob Pickel said Wednesday he supports the proposal.

“We’re excited by this, because we want folks in need to be able to stay healthy, and that means their mental health, their substance use disorders, and-or the issues that are occurring for them and their families,” Pickel said.

The Oregon League of Women Voters chose not to support the bill because of funding concerns, the organization’s president, Norman Turrill, said Wednesday.

“We would be in favor of health care for all — if we could find the funding for that,” Turrill said. “It’s not that we’re against health care for anybody, in fact we might be in favor of a single-payer system nationally, but we just don’t see it being practical at this time.”

NewsChannel 21 also spoke with some Central Oregonians to find out where they stand on the bill.

Daren Hill, who works with Bend’s homeless population, said, “Sometimes they need people to step in and help them with their health care needs, and in that case it makes sense. But if people are being irresponsible with their money, then there needs to be some kind of limitations set so they’re only getting health care when it’s needed.”

Bend resident Laura Swenson said, “I do think health care should be a universal right. We all deserve to have great health care, no matter what income bracket we’re in or what we’re doing. And we pay taxes for God’s sake, something like health care we should get and maybe taxes funds. We deserve it.”

Central Oregon Reps. Knute Buehler, Mike McLane and Gene Whisnant all voted against the bill.

It was sponsored by representatives from Beaverton, Springfield and Gresham.

Do you think access to health care should be a constitutional right? Weigh in on our new KTVZ.COM Poll, which you can find halfway down the right side of our home page.