Archimedes Movement
by t.a. barnhartMay 3rd, 2006 at 00:26:06
not sure this was a great label for Kitz’ organization, but too late now. the symbolism is great, which is why there are a ton of Archimedes projects out there. it also appears that it’s too hard for most people to spell, so a new website is coming soon: joinAM.org.
that aside, i heard Kitz speak yesterday, the first time i’ve seen him in person. it’s a shame Oregon has terms limits on the governor, because we’ve needed him. he’s clearly the best leader this state has had in decades, and we’re lucky that with all he is doing, he chooses to make Oregon his focus. he spoke of how the Oregon Health Plan not only provided a million Oregonians with care, it became the focus of the health care debate nationally. he believes the Archimedes Movement can do the same. i am just beginning to learn what AM is about, but it sounds promising. after all, it’s got John Kitzhaber up front, and he’s working with Joe Trippi, who, despite his screw-up in Iowa and subsequent blaming of Dean, is a masterful strategist. AM is taking a very Deanian approach: get people involved in their community to define the issue and then to push for solutions.
my contribution is to share AM’s progress in this blog. hopefully people who are tuning in to Onward Oregon will stumble across my posts and become a part of AM. if we are to fix our health care system, we’ll need as many of us as possible.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I agree. I’ve been here through Straub, Atiyeh, Goldschmidt, Roberts, Kitzhaber and Kulongoski. By FAR, Kitz was the best. And for the few months I qualified for it, I also credit him for getting a medical device via the OHP that literally gave me my life back.
June 5th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
It is not surprising that T.A. Barnhart wrote that the Oregon Health Plan Kitzhaber helped create provided a million Oregonians with care. You sometimes hear or read that the OHP has served 1.6 million of Oregon’s 3.6 million Oregonians.
That number represents people served under our Medicaid and CHIP programs, as well as people served under the Medicaid Expansion known as the “Oregon Health Plan” that then-Senator John Kitzhaber and the 1989 Legislature became famous for.
Just focusing on the group of Expansion clients (not otherwise eligible for traditional Medicaid or for CHIP), 675,315 were at one time or another eligible in the Expansion program. That represents approximately 41 percent of the 1.633 million clients. There is movement between programs and although 675,315 were in the Expansion program at one time or another, only 383,409 of them participated exclusively in the Expansion program; the other 291,906 were additionally eligible under the traditional Medicaid and/or CHIP programs at one time or another.