Kitzhaber Archives - The I Spy Radio Show

13-30 An Unbelievable Number | Oregon’s Healthcare Transformation

By Dr Mark | July 29, 2023 | Comments 0 Comment

Show 13-30 Summary: Lisa Lettenmaier, a former accountant and current insurance expert, has been tracking Oregon’s healthcare system for decades. We take a deep dive with her into Oregon’s healthcare system and the completely unsustainable path its on — unless you want to eventually spend every penny on “free” healthcare.

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of June 2021 — Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: July 29th & 30th, 2023 | Guest: Lisa Lettenmaier

This Week – Oregon’s Healthcare is Unsustainable

This week, we’re looking into Oregon’s health care system. And, in particular, the tidal wave of spending, endless spending, we’re dumping into what Oregon thinks is a “free” system. Or that’s the goal. It will just take a few hundred billion to get there — and another few hundred billion to keep up the illusion of “free.”

Oh, and doctors are looking to form a union. Because that always makes government expenditures go down, right? Yikes.

We talk with Lisa Lettenmaier, our go-to expert on insurance as well as the inner workings and financial health of the healthcare system.

Diagnosis: the patient is sick.

Oregon’s Healthcare Transformation

There’s a saying I’m sure you know: “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Along those lines, “Those who do not learn from Oregon are doomed to repeat its mistakes.”

Oregon’s forest management polices often lead to more forest fires. Which is stupid because all we need to do is to do something. Like the most obvious: open the forests up and let timber companies harvest — especially in areas prone to fires. Plus the government makes money. Twice. They get a payment from the sales of timber and they get all those taxes from good-paying jobs and companies making profits.

But the government would rather not do that (logging sounds like hard work) so they would rather spend money on putting out forest fires than make money doing things that would prevent the problem.

Oregon is pretty much setting its health care system on fire. And, once again, it’s a problem they caused — and then they set it on fire.

Tune in to find out just how bad it all is. Yes, the state of Oregon’s healthcare system will make you sick.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Lisa Lettenmaier’s company is Health Source NW. You’re going to pay the same rates whether you buy directly or through Lisa, so why not get the expertise you need to find the plan you want?
Main article discussed: New public health care for 100,000 Oregonians would raise private insurance costs (OPB, July 10, 2023), can’t go unanswered.
Realities Health and Ins Co are dealing with: Planned Parenthood Billboard Portrays Virginity as ‘Outdated’ and ‘Patriarchal’ (Epoch Times, July 21, 2023)
America’s STD explosion laid bare (Daily Mail, July 23, 2023)
Carbon Footprint’ of Treating Patients Is Too Big (Slay, July 22, 2023)
Oregon Doctors seek to form a union (Oregon Catalyst, July 17, 2023)
WA hospitals facing ‘unsustainable’ financial losses, in danger of cutting services (Seattle Times, July 21, 2022)
Left’s Latest Health Care Scheme Will Worsen Inflation, The Deficit, And Your Insurance (The Federalist, July 25, 2022)
Alarming: “Ed Dowd Drops Bombshell Data: Hematological (Blood-Related) Claims Up 522% Above Trend in 2022” (Gateway Pundit, July 24, 2023)
- If these data are any indication of where society’s health is headed, this is deeply worrisome as millions of people will become disabled

socialism - how it's marketed, how it is

12-42 Teeing up the Election: That Tick on America’s Back

By Dr Mark | October 15, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Show Summary: Socialism is a parasite that only survives because it lives off the blood of capitalism. It does not create wealth, it creates ruin. It has tried and failed. Oregon has been seeing its effects for decades. But this election, it could all change.

The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: October 15th & 16th, 2022 | Guest: Sen. Dennis Linthicum

This Week – Socialism: The Prosperity Parasite

When you think about it, socialism is a parasite that only survives because it lives off the blood of capitalism. Socialism does not create wealth, it creates ruin. It has tried and failed in many countries, leaving destruction in its wake. But those pushing it here in America and especially in Oregon, are only able to promote it because those pushing it are funded by the profits (and taxes) generated from capitalism.

Oregon has been seeing socialism’s effects for decades. But this election, it could all change.

By the way. We used to call Oregon the Petri Dish of Leftist politics. Now it’s the Wuhan Lab of Leftist politics.

Senator Dennis Linthicum on Socialism in Oregon

We welcome back Senator, Dennis Linthicum (SD-28, Klamath Falls) to talk about socialism and its effects in Oregon. As a state senator in Oregon, he sees the policies pushed by the democrats, many of whom are socialists or wannabes. They just haven’t come out of the closet yet. But once Oregon is full socialist, they’ll drop the mask.

Be sure to get Dennis’s newsletter. It’s easy! Just send an email to dennis@electdennis.com to sign up

During the interview, we focus on four broad policy issues: society (education, crime, attacks on the family, etc.); economics (we’re living it under Biden); environment (spotted owl, the Klamath area has been under assault for decades, timber); and healthcare. On health care, Oregon just got a billion dollars to experiment with Medicaid, expanding it to virtually everything because, you guessed it, global warming.

And, Measure 111, is on the ballot this year. It would make universal health care permanent in Oregon by making it a constitutional right.

Remember. Environmental laws are how they control businesses. Healthcare is how they control people.

That’s how they seized such broad control during covid.

Don’t miss this in-depth examination of socialism and it’s impact on Oregon. We have this year to stop it. And, for once, things are looking good.

Be sure to check out the Featured Reading section in the links section for five great articles describing socialism.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Featured Reading: Socialism
History Lesson For Millennials: Here’s Why Socialism NEVER Works (The Federalist Papers, Feb 22, 2016)
Socialism Destroys Lives and Would Destroy America – It’s That Simple (The Western Journal, October 26, 2018)
Socialism’s Historical Destruction of the Environment (Case for Conservatism, October 10, 2022)
5 Ways Socialism Destroys Societies (Townhall, Feb 25, 2014)
Socialism: Destruction, starvation, tyranny, and death are cool again (Babalú Blog, September 19, 2018)
Socialism Will Always Destroy Democracy (The American Conservative, June 7, 2019)
Or watch: Klavan Explains Why Socialism Kills Countries (Daily Wire, July 24, 2018)

See the Cato Institute’s Report Card on America’s governors. Notice how the entire Left Coast gets an “F”: “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors 2022” (Cato Institute, Oct 12, 2022)
[Canada’s healthcare hellscape is now offering assisted suicide to wounded veterans] Veterans Affairs says worker ‘inappropriately’ discussed medically assisted death with veteran (Global News Canada, August 17, 2022)
‘Abandoning People’: Canada’s Broadening Assisted Suicide Law Dangerous for the Vulnerable, Critics Say (The Epoch Times, August 24, 2022)
NHS Waiting List Tops 7 Million for First Time Leaving 1 in 8 People in England Waiting for NHS Treatment (The Daily Skeptic, Oct 13, 2022)*Wait up to 8 hours for an ambulance
Canada is Euthanizing the Poor (via VK.com, Aug 16, 2022)
Euthanasia is Now a Leading Cause of Death in Canada, And Ethicists Are Freaking Out (Daily Caller, Aug 12, 2022)
- “[Canada’s] broad eligibility has led to more than 10,000 Canadians being euthanized in the most recent year for which data is available, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the country, the AP reported.*Matthew Yglesias: “Canadian institutions seem to be using euthanasia legalization to avoid the expense of caring for the disabled.”
Disturbing: Experts troubled by Canada’ euthanasia laws (AP News, Aug 11, 2022)
Euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands: On a Slippery Slope? (Research Gate, JAMA Internal Medicine, Aug 2015)
Dr Pierre Kory on Disillusionment (drtrozzi.org, Oct 12, 2022)
- “I did not understand we were striking at the very heart of the pharmaceutical industry”
How surrogacy is transforming medicine (UnHerd, Oct 6, 2022)

Oregon Democrats want to transform Oregon's Health Care into universal health care. Can it recover? Or is it gone forever?

Why Oregon’s Health Care Lost Its Way—and Can It Recover?

By Dr Mark | November 9, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Show Summary: It was only six years ago that Oregon had one of the health care systems and markets in the nation. But then Democrats “fixed it” with their zeal for universal health care. A look back—and can it be fixed?

Coverage Map of I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of November, 2018 — Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.

Five Different Times, on Seven Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!

Saturdays
10a – 11a: KFIR 720AM (entire Willamette Valley) | Direct Link to KFIR Live Stream
11a – noon: KLBM 1450AM (Union County) | Direct Link to KLBM Live Stream
11a – noon: KBKR 1490AM (Baker County) | Direct Link to SuperTalk Live Stream
7p – 8p: KWRO 630AM (Oregon Coast & Southeastern Oregon) | Direct Link to KWRO Live Stream

Sundays
8a – 9a: KWVR 1340AM (Wallowa County) | Direct Link: KWVR Live Stream
7p – 8p: KAJO 1270AM or 99.7FM (Grants Pass/Medford) | Direct Link: KAJO Live Stream

Air Dates: Nov 9 & 10, 2019 | Lisa Lettenmaier

There’s a scene in Star Trek III when the crew of the Enterprise have stolen the ship and they’re being pursued by the Excelsior, the newest, fastest ship in the Federation fleet. The Enterprise goes to warp and the Excelsior prepares to give chase—only to have the engines grind to a halt and come to a dead stop. Scotty turns to Dr. McCoy, hands him some bolts, and says, “Here, Doctor. From one surgeon to another. The more they overhaul the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”

And that’s pretty much what happened to Oregon’s health care.

Oregon’s Health Care: What Happened?

What happened? In a word: Democrats. In their zeal to push Oregon into “universal health care,” also known as “single payer.” Or, more accurately, “socialized medicine.”

A Look Back at Oregon’s Health Care

This week, we’re joined by Lisa Lettenmaier, the owner and operator of Health Source Northwest. Lisa is our go-to expert for health care, especially the “unique aspects” of Oregon’s health care market, given our lurch toward socialized medicine.

It’s open enrollment time. Do you have an insurance plan? The deadline is Dec. 7th for Medicare and Dec. 15th for individuals. See HealthSourceNW.com

Oregon’s Health Care System Transformation

In 2013, then-Oregon-Governor John Kitzhaber, a huge proponent of single-payer/universal health care/socialized medicine introduced a grand plan for Oregon’s health care. It was generally known (in typical socialist lingo) as “Oregon’s health system transformation.”

Kitzhaber convinced Obama to spend billions on this new innovative health care system that was going to transform health care as we know it: improve care and lower costs. You read that correctly. We spent billions to lower costs.

It introduced regional monopolies known as “coordinated care organizations” (CCOs). This, despite studies that repeatedly shown that ACOs (associated care organizations, as they are known in Obamacare) do not save money. And do not improve care.

Oregon’s Coordinated Care Organizations

To set up these monopolies, they introduced legislation to bypass antitrust laws, violating the free market. The Oregon Health Authority (nice name, Nazis!) became the overseer of all things health. And the bureaucracies. Multiple layers of bureaucrats between you and your doctor. All of whom end up on Oregon’s PERS. A global budget that removed the ability to track monies allocated per patient. (Because that wouldn’t ever lead to abuse, grift, and corruption.) And a never-before seen cap on Medicare and Medicaid.

Basically, CCOs violated every free-market principle that would lower costs and improve care.

And, sadly, Oregon Republicans helped pass it. Yes, Republicans. How did this happen?

Useful Idiots: Oregon’s Republicans

Basically, the transformation was sold to gullible Republicans under the guise of “saving money” and “local control.” After the fact, they were “surprised” that this turned out to be a big giant push toward socialized medicine.

In reality, it shouldn’t have surprised any of them. Why? Because on the first page, the first paragraph of the bill it clearly said, “It is the intention of the Legislative Assembly to achieve the goals of universal access.” Yes. Universal health care. Single payer. No private health care. The finest that Venezuela has to offer.

True Stories of Socialized Medicine

Here’s a reminder: no democrat running for president has ever lived under socialism. Not one. That’s right. None of them have ever lived under universal health care. And yet Bernie and Warren and several others are pushing for both socialism and universal health care.

Know what’s funny? Have you noticed that when people in those universal health care systems run into trouble, they go to where there isn’t a universal health care system? Instead, they come here to the U.S. rather than waiting weeks or months for treatment.

Well, not everyone. Just the rich. And the politicians.

When you run into trouble in a universal health care system, you go to where there isn’t a universal health care system

Want some true stories from people who have lived under socialized medicine? See this thread on Twitter from Carlos Osweda.

Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—the podcast version will be right here after the show airs.

Links Mentioned

Lisa’s website is Health Source Northwest: www.healthsourcenw.com
True stories from someone who has lived under universal health care, the end-game for Oregon’s health care transformation
Trillium files antitrust suit against OHSU, Providence, Legacy claiming it is being blocked from Portland market (OregonLive, Oct 24, 2019)

Additional Links & Info

US judge blocks Trump’s health insurance rule for immigrants (Democrat Herald, Nov 4, 2019)
Gov. Kate Brown assembles Oregon committee to address health care costs (Statesman Journal, Oct 23, 2019)
Panel discusses universal health care at Corvallis library (Democrat Herald, Oct 23, 2019)
Obscure Model Puts a Price on Good Health—and Drives Down Drug Costs: Concept called QALY places dollar value on the health medicines can restore; ‘starting to influence decision-making’ (Wall Street Journal, Nov 4, 2019)
Research for “single payer” health care (via Physicians for a National Health Program, a pro-single-payer organization)
Don’t want to do abortions, sterilization, or assisted suicide? Tough. Or so says a NY Federal Judge: “Federal judge blocks HHS ‘conscience rule’ for health care workers. Rule was slated to go into effect November 22” (KTVZ, Nov 6, 2019)