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!