Oregon: a welfare state

by Dan Lucas

KGW reported Friday on Governor Kitzhaber’s recent trip to Washington D.C. to ask for $1.9 billion to try to reform Medicaid in Oregon. Medicaid is the government health care payment system for the poor. The KGW article also noted that there are 600,000 Oregonians on Medicaid. More accurately, according to the U.S. government Medicaid site, there were 644,000 Oregonians on Medicaid as of the end of 2010. That’s 1 in 6 Oregonians on Medicaid.

Oregon’s welfare state by the numbers:

• 1 in 6 Oregonians is on Medicaid
• More than 1 in 5 Oregonians are on food stamps (the highest rate in the nation)
• 1 in 11 Oregonians in the work force is on unemployment

Governor Kitzhaber is spending a great deal of time and focus trying to fix Oregon’s government run health care – he’s even spending some time learning how to redefine economic success.

Governor Kitzhaber should spend more time working on getting Oregon’s economy back on its feet. Then more Oregonians can get jobs and they won’t need help from the government.