Oregon Sucks

Well here we go again. Once again this spring 2011 in Oregon we are blessed with cold, wet, soggy, gloom and doom rainy weather.

When they say a "chance of rain", "showers", "rain", or even "partly cloudy" in the forecast they mean it is going to rain. Not just a brief little sprinkle, but usually most of the day.




You folks that live in other parts of the country are lucky. When they say rain it is maybe a day or two. Or, it is just light and clears up later in the day.

This isn't the case when it comes to many parts of Oregon. Just a slight mention of rain means all day. Sometimes for weeks, even months strait like the entire month of March 2011.

The weather forecasters tease us with this big nice sunny warm day that is supposed to come along. Sometimes that happens, other times it doesn't. Even if it does, next thing you know it is rainy for a week+ again.

If you can't handle a lot of rain, cloudy, gloomy doomy overcast weather for months upon end, don't even consider moving to Oregon. You will be very disappointed, and there is a good chance you will suffer a bout of depression. I'm not joking!

Because of this Oregon Sucks!

Oregon is supposed to have a health plan for people of low income. This is great and all. Many states do have similar programs they established a number of years ago. Problem is it virtually doesn't exist in Oregon. It never really did actually.

The state of Oregon would like everyone to believe they currently do have an active health plan. In reality it is nearly impossible to get accepted or on the plan.

For years they would accept new applications, but they weren't enrolling anyone. What is the point of taking applications if they weren't going to be adding anyone I am not sure. It seems like it was a big waste of time and money. Guess it gave someone a job at taxpayer expense to process them though.

Within the past couple of years somehow the state of Oregon has decided they will now start accepting a few of these applicants into the health plan, but not all of them.

I don't know what the normal way of deciding who should be accepted and who shouldn't be is. The first thing I would expect is first come first served. I would assume someone that filled out all their paper work a year or more ago would be in line before someone that filled theirs out a month ago.

Oregon doesn't like to do things the easy, normal or usual way I guess. They have decided that they will hold a lottery. A specific number of openings are allowed, and a computer randomly picks the winners. They claim it's fair. It's kind of borderline if you ask me.

A year or so ago give or take a little, they held one of these so called lottery drawings to get on the Oregon health plan. It appears they have just held another one of these recently. I don't have the specific numbers, but somewhere around 60,000 were in the lottery, of those 20,000 were picked or allowed. Approximately 1/3 anyway. Wow! A whopping 20,000 people!

Now that's not even the worst of it yet.

The Oregon health plan has terrible coverage. It is almost useless. They don't want to pay health providers squat and if they do they take months to do so.

Most doctors, dentists, hospitals and such don't or won't even take the insurance should you be lucky enough to have it.

A few years back a dentist told me he accepted the Oregon health plan insurance coverage for his patients until he got his reimbursement from the state. Turns out the state of Oregon doesn't think a dentist should charge more than $5 for a filling! Because that is all they sent him.

Anyway the point I am getting at is even though Oregon claims they have a health plan for low income individuals, they really don't. You are unlikely to win the lottery drawing, and if you do very few health providers will even accept it. I guess that is the legal way Oregon can say they have a health plan without paying or providing much of anything.

Just look at the screen shot from the Oregon Health Plan web site. They just had a drawing on August 18th, 2010 where they randomly selected 20,000 names. See top highlighted red square. Note: Click on image to enlarge.

And the bottom red highlighted area I really like the part:

Thousands of Oregonians have something in common: They have the security of health care because they are now on the Oregon Health Plan.



This is just too funny. I don't know what security they are talking about. It's like the state's idea of a sick joke.


In all fairness I don't doubt it does help a very small group of individuals that do need it. It's just too bad it's not a better system that could help more, and that it wasn't more widely accepted by health care organizations and providers.



Because of this Oregon Sucks!

Oregon is pushing the whole green thing. It ranks fairly high overall for recycling and environment friendly business and recreation. Although this is generally regarded as a good thing, I have to ask where does one draw the line?

I would say I do a better than average job at recycling and helping the environment. I am sure I could do more, but I certainly could do much less than what I do.

The state of Oregon is trying to pass a law or a ban they call it on plastic bags at the supermarket / grocery store or whatever you like to call it. There is a push for paper bags only, and ultimately they would prefer people use the cloth or re-usable bags. The city of Portland is trying to push the ban through before the rest of the state.

There are lots of conflicting information about plastic vs. paper. Depending on who you want to believe I guess. You will find information that one is better or worse than the other, and vice versa.



I for one do not like the idea of putting certain products in paper bags or in re-usable cloth bags for that matter. Raw meat comes to mind. Raw meat just belongs in plastic throw away bags if you ask me.

It would appear that the city of Portland will likely pass this ban, while the rest of the state is up in the air yet with state law makers.

Oregon comes up with some of the most ridiculous thoughts and ideas, not to mention laws.

Because of this Oregon Sucks!

Traditionally here in Oregon spring sets in rather early when compared to other parts of the country like the Midwest and eastern states. Come April and May we start seeing more sun and much warmer weather. We could easily see a number of 70-80 degree days scattered here and there.

This year we didn't see our first 80 degree day until June 12th! That's right June 12th! And that 80 degree day was barely. It was something like 80-84 and that is pushing it. The very next day it dropped around 10 degrees and is now at best 65-72 ish.






By the time decent outdoor weather actually kicks in it will be time for fall and winter again. This is a ridiculous year for nice warm sunny weather here in Oregon at least this year.

Because of this Oregon Sucks!

When fall sets in the rain begins. It's like one day it's summer and the next it's winter. Once the rain starts falling, it continues pretty much non-stop all fall and winter long. Sometimes it's just light drizzle, and other days it's a hard down pour.

Just about every day it rains though. It's dark and gloomy overcast every day, which can start to bother people over time and lead to depression. You would be surprised how much difference the sun makes in your life.

The sad thing is many of the people that live in Oregon or grew up here all their life actually look forward to the rainy season.
They seem to enjoy gloomy cloudy overcast rain every single day for 4 to 6 months strait. I don't understand how that is something to look forward to or to get excited about.

One thing about the weather in Oregon in winter the Meteoroligist / Weather man / Weather woman has one heck of an easy job. All they have to do is say it will be 40-45 degrees and raining.

So if you are not used to gloom and doom associated with all day every day rain, then you might avoid moving to or visiting Oregon in winter.

Oregon winters just suck!

Because of this I say Oregon Sucks!

Oregon recently released the latest unemployment figures for the state. Oregon now chimes in with a hefty 12.2% unemployment rate, a .3% increase for the worse over last month's 11.9%. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That puts Oregon and California tied for the bottom four in the country. Rhode Island, Nevada, and Michigan are the only states in the country with higher unemployment rates.

There are so many people unemployed in Oregon right now that people with college degrees, even bachelor degrees are applying for part-time minimum wage jobs. There are significant decreases in the number of job listings in local newspapers help wanted ads. The few jobs that happen to find their way into the paper tend to draw a record number of applicants, even for an entry level minimum wage position.

People collecting unemployment as a result of being laid off are unable to find a job because they are few and far between. Combine that with a record number of applicants that apply, and it is a very tough and sad situation. Many people are on the verge of running out of unemployment benefits, with little hope of finding a new job any time soon given the state of the economy in Oregon.

The future of Oregon's economy is very bleak. I wouldn't consider moving to Oregon in hopes of finding a new job or better future because it is not going to happen here any time soon.

On a 1 to 10 scale, 1 being the best and 10 being the worst, Oregon would be a 10!

That's Right Oregon Sucks!