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Expanding the Oregon Health Plan for 5,000 more area youngsters
More ‘healthy kids,’ but enough doctors? An unlikely tutor gives advice on Afghanistan By Elisabeth Bumiller New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — In the frantic last hours of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s command in Afghanistan, when the world wondered what was racing through the general’s mind, he reached out to an unlikely corner of his life: the author of “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones into Schools,” Greg Mortenson. “Will move through this and if I’m not involved in the years ahead, will take tremendous comfort in knowing people like you are helping Afghans build a future,” McChrystal wrote to Mortenson in an e-mail as he traveled from Kabul to Washington. The note landed in Mortenson’s inbox shortly after 1 a.m. June 23. Nine hours later, the general walked into the Oval Office to be fired by President Barack Obama. The message was in response to a note of support from Mortenson. It reflected his broad and deepening relationship with the U.S. military, whose leaders have increasingly turned to Mortenson — once a shaggy mountaineer — to help translate the theory of counterinsurgency into tribal realities on the ground. See Afghanistan / A7
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Deanna Marcum, of Redmond, holds her 2-year-old son Ashton at a checkup with Dr. John Chunn at the Central Oregon Pediatric Associates clinic in Bend on Tuesday. The state’s Healthy Kids program is making more uninsured children eligible for coverage under the Oregon Health Plan, and while COPA’s administrator, Wade Miller, wouldn’t say how many of the practice’s patients are on OHP, he indicated that the number was growing — which is significant, since pediatricians say they take a loss on every OHP patient they see. “Most practices, we’re finding, are shutting their OHP eligibility down,” Miller said. “They get to a certain percentage and say, ‘I can’t take any more losses, so I won’t see more than X percent.’”
By Markian Hawryluk • The Bulletin
L
ast year, the Legislature passed the
they will see. Such a large expansion of coverage
largest-ever expansion of the Oregon
could send hundreds more OHP kids to the few
Health Plan as a way to help the state’s
practices that won’t turn them away, which could
children. The Healthy Kids initiative
tip the delicate financial balance those fully open
will add another 80,000 children to OHP rolls by 2012, including an additional 5,000 kids in
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But state officials overseeing the whether Oregon has enough pediatri-
child patients for each pediatrician.
administrator of Oregon’s Office of
cians and other providers to handle
That’s before another
Healthy Kids. “It’s important that we
payment rates lag behind those of
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goals, we’re going to start to see the sys-
1,688
the increased caseload. Because OHP
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in. But once we reach our enrollment In Oregon, there are
program remain concerned about
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the capacity to serve all of the kids we’re bringing
nearly every child in the state.
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“As we look at our system statewide, we have
Central Oregon, offering health coverage to
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clinics have achieved.
*
80,000
uninsured children are expected to be folded into the Oregon Health Plan by 2012.
tem be stressed,” said Cathy Kaufmann,
do more than just give kids a card that says, ‘You have coverage.’ It’s important that they can get the care they need when they need it.”
Source: Oregon Department of Human Services draft report
See Healthy Kids / A4
*Note: In 2008, for example, Oregon health centers already tended to about 37,000 uninsured children, many of whom will now qualify for the Healthy Kids plan.
Genetic test mix-ups reignite regulation debate By Rob Stein The Washington Post
One woman panicked when the genetic test she ordered over the Internet concluded that her son was carrying a life-threat-
ening disorder and, even more disturbingly, that he was not — genetically — her son. Another, who always thought she was white, was flabbergasted to find her genes were mostly of African
origin. A third woman’s result was still more stunning: She was a man, it said. “I thought, ‘Oh my god. Am I really a man?’” said Denise Weinrich, 48, of St. Peters, Mo. “I
thought: ‘What’s the matter with me? ... How am I going to tell my children?’ DNA doesn’t lie.” DNA does not lie, but its truth is often elusive. See Genetic tests / A8
Redmond school clinic wrestles with contraception controversy By Patrick Cliff The Bulletin
REDMOND — A school-based health clinic at Redmond High School that opens in early 2011 will be the first in Central Oregon designed primarily for high school students. Because of the older student population, the school district is wrestling with the question of how much, if any, reproductive health care to allow at the clinic. The Redmond High clinic will be the fifth to open in Deschutes County, joining ones in La Pine, Bend and Sisters — which opens in the fall — and another in Redmond. The school-based health clinics offer health services to any district student for slidingscale fees. No student is denied care because of an inability to pay, but if a student has insurance, the clinic will bill the company. District staff and Redmond School Board members indicate they understand any decision likely will cause controversy. In an attempt to address parents’ concerns, the district is working to answer the question through an academic approach backed by research and data; making a reactive decision without research, said Martha Hinman, the district’s director of student services, would be irresponsible. “When we’re talking about total health care, it wouldn’t be right for us to exclude this section without investigating it,” Hinman said. “We wouldn’t be doing our job working for the community and public if we didn’t research this.” See Clinic / A6
As Facebook users die, their ghosts seek to reconnect By Jenna Wortham New York Times News Service
Courtney Purvin got a shock when she visited Facebook last month. The site was suggesting she get back in touch with an old family friend who played piano at her wedding four years ago. The friend had died in April. “It kind of freaked me out a bit,” she said. “It was like he was coming back from the dead.” Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, knows a lot about its 500 million members. Its software offers helpful nudges about things like birthdays and friends you have not contacted in awhile. But the company has had trouble automating the task of figuring out when one of its users has died. That can lead to some disturbing or just plain weird moments for Facebook friends. See Death / A7
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