April 2006

The first week of May is Cover the Uninsured Week, which is no easy task in Oregon where we have about 650,000 people without health insurance. But it is an essential task for the health of our community. And it is essential to realize that we are all part of this community that we call Oregon. Some people like to think of themselves as somehow separate, as if there is an “us” and a “them.” But the truth is that we are all “us” and the actions and decisions we make have impacts on the whole community, not just the parts of it that we choose to see.

Welcome to the health care reform blog. I look forward to sharing ideas and “blogging” with you about health care reform.

I have been privileged to serve as OHSU’s president since 1988 and, during this time, I’ve witnessed huge leaps in medicine. However, extraordinary medical breakthroughs and technology advances lose some of their luster when so many people can’t afford them. As you know, health care for many people is a serious economic challenge. In Oregon alone, over 600,000 people are uninsured. Hundreds of thousands of others are underinsured.

This is an unacceptable situation. I think we can all agree that everyone deserves access to basic health care. The question is: how do we as a society come together to create a health care system to achieve this? The answer to this question is not clear and the problems our current health care system faces are huge. But we must begin the process of change despite how daunting the task.