HCAO Annual Report for AFSCME RETIREES

HCAO AFSCME ANNUAL REPORT

When the Pandemic hit March 2020 all gatherings stopped.  This not only affected HCAO committee meetings, board meetings, annual meetings, it also impacted community events in which HCAO normally participates with presentations, films, and tabling.

Surprisingly interest in HCAO is growing.  We are increasing membership, and Organizations are joining or endorsing HCAO.  We now have over 37,000 supporters in our data base plus 136 supporting organizations and over 200 businesses are now supporters.  We also are growing our chapters throughout the state.  We now have 15 chapters.

People are starting to connect the dots.  Like 40 plus other countries throughout the world, people are beginning to understand that publicly provided universal health care is necessary for our country, if we are to have healthy people able to compete on a global scale.

There are two bills in the Oregon legislature that will help us attain our goal of universal care.  SJR12 is the HOPE Amendment which will be a constitutional change assuring that people in Oregon have a right to health care. Many organizations are supporting this bill including Oregon AFSCME Council 75.

The other bill is SB428 which will continue funding the Task Force on Universal Health Care. The 2019 Legislature passed SB770 which created the Task Force to return to the body its recommendations on how to implement publicly provided universal care. This will include the amount of resources, savings, and means to attain those resources. Click here for a quick read. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59e96b4280bd5eb45e5cedfd/t/60065bb432820a01445d5a8e/1611029437329/SB770%2BHCAO%2BOne%2BPager%2B20210114.pdf

Many organizations are putting our link on their websites. AFSCME Retirees have a new website which includes an HCAO blog. https://www.ch75retirees.org/

Thank you Retirees for your support.

Lou Sinniger

membership@hcao.org

541-954-2356