Wyden talks broadband support, health care concerns

Published 11:00 am Tuesday, June 27, 2023

LA GRANDE — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden was met with criticisms and praise during a town hall at the Blue Mountain Conference Center on Monday, June 26.

The town hall was the Oregon Democrat’s second to last stop in a tour of the seven Eastern Oregon counties, which began in Malheur County on June 23 — and the 1,058th town hall during his time as an Oregon senator — where he detailed the “biggest amount ever” $700 million in federal funding to expand rural broadband in Oregon, before responding to public comments.

“The $700 million will be administered through Oregon’s Broadband Office. It makes it a priority to go to the unserved communities,” Wyden said. “I want you to know, this is not a situation where somebody in the Senate goes and gets the money and then calls it a day. I’m gonna be watchdogging this money every step of the way.”

Despite being thanked for his work in increasing federal protections of the Owyhee River and Canyonlands and securing $2 million for Union County Emergency Services for its Union County Radio System Upgrade Project in 2022, and his work this year to stress the importance of tourism in Oregon, community members voiced their health care concerns to Wyden as well.

Universal health care concerns

Though Teresa Smith-Dixon, a retired clinical social worker is “celebrating” Oregon’s steps toward universal health care, she and other individuals at the town hall spoke out against Medicare privatization and high deductibles.

“We got to get the corporations out of our way between us and our doctors. We really have to do something about health care now. You’ve put it off, and I talked to you last time you were here,” Smith-Dixon said. “We really need to look at these Medicare Advantage plans. We need to look at Medicare For All. And I’m asking you again, to think about that, please.”

Wyden said that he is “making some headway on the Medicare Advantage issue,” and noted a perceived trend in the health care system, pointing out the pending closure of the birth center at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, Baker City.

“It sure looks like there’s a corporate consolidation issue. And we got to dust off the antitrust laws, and make sure that people aren’t just being hammered by corporate consolidation, because nobody has challenged it,” Wyden said.

Veterans health care

Ken McCormack, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a Union County resident, brought up issues such as diminishing staffing and phone calls limited to five minutes for veterans seeking care.

Wyden said that health care for veterans “won a big round” last summer — alluding to shutting down the process that would’ve reduced care for Eastern Oregon veterans in June 2022 — and that he’s “willing to do that again.”

“La Grande does a lot of things well. One of the things it does best is care for vets,” Wyden said after touring the Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic on 12th Street.

Wyden said, after talking to staff at the clinic, they still have challenges — the three largest problems Wyden identified were staff not getting enough time with patients, referrals and Cerner Corp., a supplier of health information technology services, devices, and hardware.

“One of the big challenges in American health care is that sometimes the top brass uses the words ‘do less,’” he said. “I’m never going to accept, when it comes to military families, the notion that providers are supposed to do less.”

Wyden said that Union County might need to have another open hearing to address the problems, just as he did in 2022.

“(Veterans) served us with incredible courage and valor, and the least that can be done by those who serve them in public office is to make sure they get heard,” he said.

Wyden hopes to further increase services for veterans in Union County.

“Veterans in Walla Walla are legally entitled to more services and community-based outpatient clinics than here, so we’re gonna follow up with Ken (McCormack), we’ll go from there,” he said.