After reading Oregon House Bill 2009, what a job – hope that you read it. Here are some of the reasons that I think this is a total fiasco, and should not be passed: This requires mandatory health insurance for every Oregon citizen, subsidizes health insurance premiums for low- and moderate-income families, institutes a payroll tax on employers and a new tax on health insurance and managed-care plans. The state would purchase health care facilities and would provide health care for all areas of the state, and regulate sale and transactions of all policies in the state. All individual and small group health insurance must be purchased through the state. There will be no denial of insurance for pre-existing medical conditions. This is a damned lie. This is a conspiracy, and it will create a monopoly because it will drive all other private carriers of health insurance out of the state, leaving the state as the only health carrier. This will create another huge bureaucracy in this state and will be a huge tax burden on the citizens of this state.

Also, this state has never run any department with efficiency. Look at ODOT and the bridge bill – there is a joke that cost us billions. Remember when the first bridge was dedicated, it was dedicated on one lane going one way and in the lane going the other way, and there was a huge piece of iron covering the hole in the road. After the first year of construction, 65 percent of the new bridges had the same cracks as the bridges they replaced. What did the legislators do? Nothing.

I was in the insurance business when the state started the Oregon Health Plan. They financed it with $5 million for the biennium, and had to go back the next year for another $5 million. Today that program is costing the citizens millions in tax dollars because it does not pay for itself. If you think that was bad, this new one will be a deep tax hole that the citizens of this state cannot afford. Also the movement of businesses from Portland to Vancouver will be enormous.

James Burns

Weston

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