Making Health Care Work for Patients, Caregivers and our Community.The
Make Health Care Work campaign is a coalition of caregivers, community members and persons of faith uniting to make health care work by holding hospitals accountable to patients, caregivers and the community.
The Make Health Care Work campaign is coordinated by the Service Employees International Union, North America's largest health care union.
The High Cost of Health CareOregon is currently the third most expensive state in which to spend a day in the hospital. Soaring health care costs erode family budgets, penalize employers and dominate state budget debates.
Who's to blame and what can we do about it?Hospital corporations and their record profits are the leading cause of soaring health care costs, surpassing even insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Oregon hospitals make higher profits than the national average. These are non-profit hospital systems that, in some cases, earn double the average national profit margin. We spend more than a third of personal health care spending on hospital care - more than $6 billion a year. Moreover, growth in hospital spending is the biggest component of growth in health care spending overall. Hospital corporations increase profits in two ways that hurt Oregon families:
• by charging higher prices and
• by reducing access to less-profitable services.
Costly Silence describes our failure to plan our community health care needs and the resulting failures in our health care system, and offers a plan to give the community a voice in health care planning.
Read
Costly Silence to find out
* How tax dollars fund our health care system yet we have no input
* How lack of accountability leads hosptials to provide the most profitable services
* How unmanaged expansion leaves health care needs unmet and threatens patient care
* How we can make health care work by enacting regional health care planning
Download Costly SilenceThe Price of Motherhood reveals the hidden facts about the cost of having a baby in Oregon and offers expectant parents tools to choose the right hospital for their growing families.
Read
The Price of Motherhood to find out:
* How hospital pricing really works
* How much it actually costs each hospital in the state to provide a normal delivery
* How much hospitals will bill you if you don't have the power to negotiate a better rate
Download The Price of MotherhoodBehind Oregon's Health Care Crisis is a report from Oregonians for Health Security that documents how large, financially powerful hospital systems are driving up the cost of care for all of us.
Read
Behind Oregon's Health Care Crisis to find out:
* How rising hospital costs are driving up the cost of health care in Oregon
* How Oregon hospitals have a higher profit margin than the national average
* How market consolidation means higher costs for consumers.
Download Behind Oregon's Health Care Crisis