{"id":180292,"date":"2023-02-09T16:06:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T00:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=189075"},"modified":"2023-02-09T16:06:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T00:06:03","slug":"online-extra-letters-feb-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/09\/online-extra-letters-feb-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Extra Letters Feb. 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEALTH COVERAGE FOR ALL OREGONIAN<\/strong>S<\/p>\n

Of little notice, but of great impact, is the potential for this legislative session to bring us the next step to universal health care. How will this happen? What will it mean?<\/p>\n

We need the Legislature to pass the Task Force for Universal Health Care recommendation, which is to establish a well-funded governance board for the Oregon Health Plan.<\/p>\n

This board will be responsible to bring back for approval a universal health care plan by 2025. It will cover everyone\u2019s health care needs, including behavioral, dental, vision and hearing, with no out of pocket, deductible or any other costs at the point of health services. Can you imagine no more bills for your health care?<\/p>\n

It means the end of racial or economic health care inequities, no more bankruptcies caused by illnesses or accidents and no more dependency on employer (partially) provided health insurance. In other words, people are free to make life choices without being tied down by health insurance considerations.<\/p>\n

Join Health Care for All Oregon, HCAO.org, for more information and be a part of another Oregon first.<\/p>\n

Lou Sinniger<\/em>
\nElmira<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

LET\u2019S PASS A RENTERS\u2019 TAX CREDIT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kevin C. Cronin\u2019s letter to the editor (\u201cStop The City\u2019s Foot Dragging On Helping The Homeless,\u201d Feb. 2) presents a disturbing picture of the City Manager\u2019s response to homelessness, especially in light of Gov. Tina Kotek\u2019s calling it an emergency demanding immediate action.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for citizens to pose questions and call for action on the local and national levels, and to thank and encourage Gov. Kotek to keep up the focus to end this situation of unhoused people. On the national level, the expanded child tax credit gave families hope by helping them catch up on rent, bills, and paying for food. This ladder out of poverty needs to be renewed and a renters\u2019 tax credit passed that would help to cut the slide to homelessness among people paying too much of their income for rent (millions pay 50 percent or more).<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s raise our voices so our representatives at all levels know that it is time to end this blight of homelessness in the world\u2019s richest nation. Passing these initiatives is a good start and your voice can help it happen.<\/p>\n

Willie Dickerson<\/em>
\nSnohomish, Washington<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

COVID ISN\u2019T A PARTY<\/strong><\/p>\n

City Councilor Randy Groves describing life after the pandemic as a \u201changover\u201d for local businesses in the Jan. 26 <\/span>Eugene Weekly<\/span><\/i> is, at best, careless and uninformed. A hangover is the result of a poor decision from the night before. Many are familiar with the nausea, headaches and \u201chang-xiety\u201d after a night of partying.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, yes, small business owners understand the sentiment of describing the state of our local economy as a \u201changover\u201d while they grapple with the challenges of keeping a business afloat in the shockwaves of the pandemic (which may also elicit nausea, headaches, and, most certainly, anxiety).<\/span><\/p>\n

But was this a result of a bad decision? As if we should all laugh about COVID-19 and promise, \u201cI\u2019m never doing that again!\u201d and pull ourselves out of it by our bootstraps. It was also an interesting sentiment to include Sheree Walters\u2019 quote expressing frustration at employees not giving two weeks\u2019 notice or showing up to interviews. Gee, perhaps people are being choosy about where they work because they can\u2019t afford to live in this town anymore or provide childcare for their little ones. What are Councilor Grove\u2019s thoughts on that?<\/span><\/p>\n

Hangovers go away on their own, but this one won\u2019t without better decision-making from the top. How about our local government taking accountability for the alarming number of small businesses in town closing their doors for good?<\/span><\/p>\n

Alicia Balfrey<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Eugene<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEALTH COVERAGE FOR ALL OREGONIANS Of little notice, but of great impact, is the potential for this legislative session to bring us the next step \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,77,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ew-extra","category-letters","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}