Measure 50: Health Care for Uninsured Oregon Children

November is right around the corner so let's start thinking about issues that matter to us parents.  Measure 50, which intends to "guarantee health care for 100,000 uninsured Oregon children and strengthen tobacco prevention programs through an 84.5 cent per pack increase in the state’s cigarette tax matching our neighbors to the north in Washington State" is on the ballot this year.  You can find out more by visiting http://www.healthykids-oregon.org; but can anyone out there demystify the ballot measure?  Part of it addresses uninsured children, but it does not quite jive with tobacco prevention.  Is it because the cigarette tax will be subsidizing health care?  If you understand this, let us know if this is something we need to act on.

Comments

[ltfdbc]

You probably recall the day this Spring when our state legislature failed to pass the Healthy Kids Plan. Not a surprising outcome, really, given the plan's reliance on a hefty hike in the cigarette tax. Luckily, some dedicated legislators managed to get the plan referred to the November 6th ballot - and that's where we come in. Vote for it, yes, but work for it, too! Here's an opportunity for meaningful activism, right here, right now. It may feel like summer still, but in election timing November is just around the corner.

What would the plan do? In short, the plan will use the increased revenue from a cigarette tax increase to insure about 116,000 currently uninsured children and strengthen tobacco prevention programs (in my opinion that's needed to pass the bill since the funds are coming from the pockets of smokers; it's got to benefit smokers somehow; as I understand it the missing link between smokers wallets and kids health insurance was a big issue in the legislature). For more details, there is excellent information on the Governor's Healthy Kids Plan web site [http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/summary_health.shtml] - he is VERY interested in seeing this pass. The plan is designed to meet children's health care needs in three ways:

* Continue expanding school-based health centers.
* Improve and expand access to the state’s Medicaid and SCHIP programs [see our 7.19.07 post on SCHIP].
* Expand health care coverage for kids by giving parents with higher incomes (too high to qualify for federal programs) the opportunity to buy affordable, state-subsidized group coverage for their children.

The issue is not limited to children's access to health care because of the cigarette tax funding tie-in, which expands the discussion to smokers' health and medical costs, fairness of charging one population to pay for another, and of course the lobbying power of the tobacco industry.

How to get involved: Definitely check out the Healthy Kids Plan web site. It has information about the plan as well as a variety of ways to get involved with the campaign itself, including signing up for e-mail updates, contributing personal stories, and - of course - donating money. Plenty of organizations you've heard of are endorsing Measure 50, including Stand for Children [http://www.stand.org/or/] and Children First for Oregon [http://www.cffo.org/]. If you receive their e-mail alerts, you're likely to hear about Measure 50.

And last but not least, this might be a good opportunity for the Activistas to get behind as a group. Let's discuss on 8.21.07.

[Pfeenie]

I'd just like to clarify something. Measure 50 does differ from the Gov's original Healthy Kids Plan (linked to above) in that the school-based health center portion of the HKP was put into the general fund and passed during the session. Other portions may have passed separately as well, but I don't know for sure.

So Measure 50 will focus on covering all uninsured kids and doubling the funds for tobacco prevention. I don't believe the ballot measure language is available yet, but the "Yes on 50" campaign's website is http://healthykids-oregon.org. I'm sure they'll post it there when it becomes available.

[Pfeenie]

Here's the link to the Secretary of State's website where you can read the full text of the Measure or an explanatory statement. Enjoy! http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/nov62007/

[olivia]

From what I can gather, yes - the proposal would tax 84.5 cents per pack of cigarettes, and results in $152.7 million for the 2007-2009 biennium.

The money would be used to provide health care for children, low-income adults, and other medically-underserved Oregonians.

I am not sure what the tobacco tax is right now, but I would support the measure if it provides health care for underserved that is currently not provided.

A recent article in the Portland Business Journal talks about how the tobacco industry will send in its guns to oppose the measure. So, if this measure makes sense to you, I hope you vote for it in November.