Another Measure 28 sob story...

Portland Tribune ^ | February 4, 2003 | Mary Belotti

[onehipdad]

DIFFICULTIES, EVEN DEATH, STALK NEEDY
State budget game is ‘playing with people’s lives,’ AIDS patients lament
BY MARY BELLOTTI Issue date: 2/4/2003 The Tribune

Bill Hancock and William Reed think the state delivered a death sentence to them Saturday when it stopped paying almost $4,000 a month for powerful drugs they need to battle the deadly AIDS virus.

The partners, who met at Our House of Portland hospice in 1995, are among the thousands of low-income, sick, disabled, mentally ill and/or elderly Oregonians who depend on the state for lifesaving medical care.

On top of that, Hancock and Reed said, the state didn’t give people time to adjust to the news that medical benefits would end. Notices went out the second and third week of January that most of the cuts would be made Feb. 1. Their letter from the state was sent Jan. 16.

“They’re playing with people’s lives,” Hancock said. “It’s a political game in Salem, and we’re the pawns.”

Hancock and Reed are not alone in their opinions.

For example, at least nine elderly residents will lose long-term care services in April at the Harvest Homes assisted living facility in North Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood. Several more came close to losing benefits, including 90-year-old Verne Weber Sr., but last-minute intervention by his family and an attorney helped prevent it.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, not even in my worst nightmares,” said facility Administrator Dee Dee Haliski.

State health officials say the service cuts were necessary because the Legislature had ordered the Oregon Department of Human Services to reduce its current budget by $140 million to make up for a budget shortfall that resulted from lower than anticipated tax revenues.

Measure 28, defeated last week in a 54-percent-to-46-percent vote, would have restored $88 million of those cuts, but not enough to avert all of the reductions.

“We could not realize significant savings without major cuts to services,” said department Director Jean Thorne. “We sought to protect the most vulnerable people, although all of our clients are vulnerable.”

But critics, including members of the Libertarian Party of Oregon, say cuts that make people suffer are unnecessary and unacceptable.

“There is fat all over the place in state government,” said Richard Burke, the party’s executive director.

“Government has a moral obligation to divert dollars from unnecessary and wasteful programs to core government services.”

Burke listed several immediate actions the Legislature could take to restore cuts to human services, law enforcement and education. Among them: make changes to the PERS retirement system, privatize the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and reduce from five to four days the workweek of middle managers whose jobs do not involve public safety.

“If people suffer, legislative inaction will be to blame,” Burke said.

So far, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and most state legislators have no plans to change cuts already made.

Lives may unravel again

For Reed, 39, and Hancock, 47, the cuts mean they may again face an agonizing death from AIDS. It happened before, in 1995, when they were at Our House hospice waiting to die.

Their reprieve came in the form of then-new but expensive drug “cocktails” that have prolonged their lives for more than seven years.

“We were the first to leave Our House alive,” Hancock said.

Together, they have spent the last seven years “rebuilding our lives and working hard to rebuild our health,” he said.

Reed’s health is more fragile than Hancock’s. He takes 16 pills in the morning and 19 at night to keep the AIDS virus at bay, to counteract the drugs’ severe side effects and to ease debilitating pain. His drug bill amounts to about $2,100 a month.

Hancock, recovering from a recent heart attack, takes drugs to fight AIDS and to combat heart problems that he developed as a side effect from the AIDS drugs. His drug costs amount to about $1,800 a month.

Besides paying for their drugs, their health plan also covered the services of a home health-care worker. That benefit was cut, as was coverage for dental and mental health services.

The two men devote much of their time now applying for various programs that help low-income patients get free or discounted medications.

They’ve applied to a federally funded local program called CareAssist, which helps low-income HIV/AIDS patients pay for drugs and other medical costs.

The program has “a huge waiting” list, which will only grow with the state budget cuts, said CareAssist spokeswoman Veda Latin.

“It’s been real stressful and not healthy for me,” Reed said.

***rest of story at URL above

[onehipdad]

Thank goodness Measure 28 failed, otherwise I would not have known my tax dollars were going to buy drugs to keep these fellers alive, who could not resist indulging in life-threatening behavior!

[VietVet]

Boy, did the Portland Tribune pick the wrong example to build sympathy for the many people who will genuinely suffer form the reduction in state financed medical benefits.

"...spend most of their time applying for public assistance..."?

If the paper wanted to make the citizens of Oregon feel guilty about spending only the money they have, then it should have concentrated on the 90 year olds being evicted from the old-folks homes.

That said, I'll bet the critics are correct, and there is a lot of fat which could be cut from the Oregon State Budget. Did the legislators consider taking a pay cut themselves?

Probibly not.

VietVet