Anyone who has read the local news recently knows about PeaceHealth’s controversial choice to stop working with Eugene’s resident group of emergency physicians and instead partner with ApolloMD, an Atlanta-based medical staffing firm. With this change, there will now be an active consolidation of the hiring managers, practicing doctors and administrative staff at hospitals throughout Lane County. 

This is emblematic of the entire American health care system, where one of the main contributing factors to rising costs is workplace consolidation.

I support Eugene Emergency Physicians and how they’ve garnered awareness and voiced dissent against PeaceHealth’s decision, but this is only the first step forward on a much longer path. We need to break free of the economic model that dominates U.S. health care. 

It may come as a surprise to some (like it was for me) that our state government is currently looking at how to create and implement a single-payer health care system. 

However, one of the main things I’ve learned over the past 10 years is that we can’t wait for a top-down governmental approach to solve huge problems. We can’t wait for federal intervention to create universal health care, and we can’t pass the buck to faceless individuals in our state government and assume they will pass necessary and much-needed legislation. To gain quality and accessible health care for everybody, we need everybody to get involved.

Fortunately, there is Health Care for All Oregon, a Portland-based nonprofit that has established chapters across the state to help people participate and create political pressure to enact this change. I encourage everyone to look up Health Care for All Oregon, do what you can to get involved and help lead Oregon and the nation to a more equitable and healthier future.

Chris Daniel
Springfield