The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year (or, What Happens When You Give Poor People Health Insurance?) "We find that in this first year, the treatment group had substantively and statistically significantly higher health care utilization (including primary and preventive care as well as hospitalizations), lower out-of-pocket medical expenditures and medical debt (including fewer bills sent to collection), and better self-reported physical and mental health than the control group." [more inside]
posted by OmieWise on Jul 11, 2011 - 65 comments

Oregon is set to become the third state in the US to allow psychologists (with no medical training) to write prescriptions. Senate Bill 1046 (PDF version on Google Docs) will become law by next July unless the Governor vetoes it. One funny twist: during public hearings on the bill, it was revealed that an out-of-state expert (who was temporarily licensed in Oregon so he could give recommendations on the panel) happened to run a school that trained psychologists to prescribe meds, which would directly benefit from the bill's passage.
posted by mathowie on Mar 2, 2010 - 87 comments

The state of Oregon is holding a health insurance lottery where 91,000 hopeful enrollees will be competing for a couple thousand spots under the Oregon Health Plan, the state's Medicaid program. OHP was created to cover those who made too much to enroll in traditional Medicaid but too little to afford market healthcare, and this development comes as a result of budget cuts and a subsequent enrollment closure in July of 2004. It's a far cry from the universal health care coverage that the plan was suppose to lead to, and marks a dramatic turn for the state's once-ambitious health care reforms.

(Previously in dystopic health care developments)
posted by Weebot on Mar 30, 2008 - 64 comments

After reading that beef has been recalled from my local grocery store, I spent some time reading Mad Cow USA a book written back in 1997 but not widely published because of fears of repercussions under the Texas food disparagement act. AlterNet has an article written by one of the book's authors summarizing some of the key points of the book. Some claim that only ground beef is infected, while others claim that's bull. mad-cow.org has a lot of good information on the topic, and it seems the powers that be are going to blame Canada.
posted by woil on Dec 30, 2003 - 14 comments

If you can spare a moment from histrionic rhetorical arguments about far away places you have no real experience with to involve yourself with practical ways to stop the trend toward a fundamentalist totalitarian corporate dictatorship in this country and step by small pragmatic step reclaim democracy, a good first step is to support Oregon's Measure 23, to promote comprehensive universal health care using a single payer public finance mechanism, or support healthcare for everyone in your state.
posted by semmi on Sep 30, 2002 - 37 comments

Author Ken Kesey in critical condition in Eugene. . .He's been sort of a local celeb around here. Cuckoo's Nest is still one of the major works of the 20th Century even though he never wrote anything approaching it. I hope that he survives to write more and is seen again cruising in his Caddy convertible.
posted by Danf on Nov 9, 2001 - 22 comments