I. Present: John Nichols, Peter Mahr, Sam Metz, Jon Partridge, Steve Weiss
II. Updates
1. Leadership Issues: Peter Mahr will be on sabbatical from 10/1/10 to 4/1/11 working in another country. He will be unable to lead PNHP Portland during this time. Discussion was held as to whether PNHP Portland wants to change leadership now and have a rotating leadership as we move forward. Sam Metz felt that he was not available to lead the chapter but he was able to pitch in and help run meetings and possibly cover emails in Peter’s absence. It was felt that a more formal meeting structure with meeting rules is not needed at this time. More discussion and a final plan for PNHP leadership in Peter’s absence will finish at the 9/7/10 meeting.
2. OR SP Conference: there will be a SP Conference held this fall with funding from the Presbyterian Church. There is a survey being sent around by Jobs with Justice asking for input on ideas/themes/presenters/location etc for the conference. If you would like to participate or return a survey please contact Peter.
3. State SP Bill for OR: Kris Alman is working with Jobs with Justice and others to craft a single payer bill that will be introduced in the state legislature. Mitch Greenlick will hold hearings once the bill is introduced. Kris sent me an email with an update which was shared with the group. There are individuals and groups assigned to different aspects of the bill like schedule of benefits, revenue, board responsibilities, governance etc. At this time it appears that the bill will likely allow a Taft Hartley exception and Kris notes that PNHP must decide whether to endorse the bill with the TH exemption. Sam Metz and Peter Mahr agreed that we should endorse the bill even if it has a TH exemption as primarily it will present an opportunity for us to be heard on the state level and to provide the economic figures that so heavily favor SP. Also TH plan may fade as SP takes off. There seem to be few downsides to endorsing the bill even though there may be a TH exemption. All agreed that benefits should be broad and comprehensive. Strict limits to coverage like the current OHP will likely turn off many from the bill.
4. Economics of OR SP: Sam brilliantly researched the health care numbers for OR and I have attached his spread sheet. He found that in 2009 total health care spending in OR was $25 billion. $12 billion was spent via existing state and federal funds. He concluded that a state SP bill would, therefore, need to provide revenue of $13 billion per year. (He acknowledged that likely spending would increase as access increased but felt that reduced administrative costs and increased primary care access would counteract the increase in spending from newly insured patients.)
He proposed a progressive business payroll tax split 70/30 between employer and employee and rising based on size of the business. He found that, on average, we could fund OR SP by generating $7,500 per worker: or $2,229/ yr ($186/month) payroll tax deducted from each employee and $5,200 ($430/month) deducted from the employer payroll tax for each employee. He felt that since the average premium for single employee is currently $4,400 per year and $12,000 per family, that these numbers would be gladly accepted by businesses and individuals, especially since they would now be “buying” comprehensive, low deductible, low co-pay insurance as opposed to the high deductible, hi cost-share insurance plans available to businesses now.
5. Speakers Bureau: no updates. Gene Uphoff is planning to speak to the Kiwanis Club this month. Peter has been invited to address the Oregon Associating of Nurseries at their annual convention in September.
III. Presentation: presentation on small business and single payer was postponed until September.