Published on February 6, 2013 at 10:58 PM
The Olympian: In Washington State, Mental Health Funds Sought As Help Falls Short
It's nothing new: horror stories about people whose mental illnesses turned them into killers; a safety net that failed to catch them; and now, politicians in Olympia vowing to do something. "There's suddenly a lot of movement, and it's sad that it's taken a series of catastrophic tragedies to start addressing this, but it's a catalyst," said Larry Thompson, a therapist at Western State Hospital in Lakewood who said he's more hopeful for change than he has been in years (Schrader, 2/4).
Statesman Journal: Demonstrators Urge Universal Single-Payer Health Care System
Changes are underway to change state and federal health care, but hundreds of Oregonians gathered at a rally Monday said they want lawmakers to move further toward establishing a universal single-payer system. More than 200 people held up protest signs, chanted and even sang at the Capitol's steps to show their support for such legislation. Instead of paying private health insurance premiums, co-payments and other medical expenses, residents would fund the universal health care plan through a tax based on their ability to pay, according to Health Care for ALL Oregon, a coalition of labor, education and health care organizations that hosted the rally (Wong, 2/4).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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