Oregon voters are being asked to decide whether the state should be the first in the nation to amend its constitution to explicitly declare that affordable health-care is a fundamental human right.
State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, a main sponsor of the legislation behind the ballot measure, said making health-care a human right is a value statement and is not aimed at pushing Oregon to a single-payer health-care system, a longtime goal of many progressives.
Republican lawmakers consistently opposed efforts to ask voters to enshrine health-care as a right in Oregon's 163-year-old constitution. Three dozen organizations, including health workers, unions and educators, called the new ballot measure “a critical first step to creating an Oregon where everyone can afford to be healthy.”
It goes on to say that the state's obligation “must be balanced against the public interest in funding public schools and other essential public services.” The measure was long championed by Democratic state Rep. Mitch Greenlick, who died in 2020 at age 85, a year before the Legislature approved putting it on the ballot.