Kitzhaber talks reform for state's health care.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

He doesn't hold public office any more, but former Gov. John Kitzhaber still knows how to inspire a crowd.

Kitzhaber on Friday brought his quest to reform American health care to the City Club of Eugene in a lunchtime speech that drew an audience of 260 people to their feet in a standing ovation.

Kitzhaber, a two-term governor and former emergency room doctor, wants Oregon to have health care coverage for everyone, similar to the way public education is available to all.

"There is universal access to publicly subsidized education, and no one is left out," he said.

In recent months, Kitzhaber has proposed a radical statewide health care makeover that some have praised as visionary, and others have labeled as unrealistic. Earlier this year, Kitzhaber dropped the idea of running for governor, preferring instead to continue pressing for health care changes.

The way the United States finances health care no longer works, Kitzhaber said. That is shown by the 50 million Americans, including 600,000 Oregonians, who are unable to afford health insurance, he said.

"The uninsured are the symptom of the problem," Kitzhaber said. They are "not the problem."

The problem, according to Kitzhaber, is the convoluted way health care is provided and paid for.

Rapidly rising medical costs are prompting many employers to eliminate health insurance for employees, which sends more working poor to emergency rooms for medical care that they don't have to pay for, Kitzhaber said.

Meanwhile, insurance companies and the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs refuse to spend money on preventative care, which ultimately costs everyone - taxpayers, workers and employers - more in the long run, Kitzhaber said.

"We won't spend pennies" for medicines to treat high blood pressure, but "we'll pay dollars to deal with your stroke," he said.

Kitzhaber, a Democrat, is the architect of the Oregon Health Plan, which limits the types of medical procedures that public dollars pay for, and uses the savings to extend health care coverage to more low-income residents.

He said he doesn't yet know what services should be covered in the universal health care system he wants the state to adopt. But Kitzhaber urged the audience at the Hilton Eugene to help him figure that out through his reform effort, which he has dubbed "The Archimedes Movement."

This year, for example, Kitzhaber wants Oregonians to share ideas in order to agree on the basic foundations of a health care system that would be available to all who need it.

Then, Kitzhaber said, he wants the state to press the federal government to allow changes in the ways the state can use public funding of health care in Oregon - the estimated $6.3 billion in spending on Medicare and Medicaid and in tax breaks to employers who provide health insurance to employees.

Kitzhaber hopes Oregon becomes the first state to push for the changes. He said it won't be easy getting such reforms through Congress.

But Kitzhaber said the state's experience in getting the federal government to approve the Oregon Health Plan shows that it can be done.

He urged people to get involved in the drive by going to the Web site, www.archimedes movement.org. Archimedes was a Greek mathematician and inventor, whose inventions are said to include a large screw-type device to pull water uphill.

Kitzhaber's group will have its first public event at 1 p.m. Sunday in Portland.

Kitzhaber ended his 27-minute speech by urging people to get involved.

"If we are not willing to do it for ourselves, then we should do it for our children and our grandchildren," he said.

Sharon Flynn, a physician who works at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, attended Kitzhaber's speech. She said she liked what he had to say.

Flynn said she sees more working poor seeking medical treatment at the hospital because they do not have health insurance.

"I like the fact that (Kitzhaber) is focusing on the need for preventative care," she said.