Help reimagine health care for Oregonians and all

As America prepares to celebrate our 250th anniversary, a more recent but disturbing anniversary looms large for millions of families in Oregon and nationwide. On July 4th, 2025, congressional Republicans passed their so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill, making the largest health care cuts in American history.

These cuts, combined with the rise of corporate health care monopolies elevating profits over patients, are driving up costs and putting care out of reach for those needing it. This broken system demands major surgery.

As the senior Democrat on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, responsible for much of federal health care policy, I've worked to chart a fresh course that lowers costs and takes away big corporations' power to choose profits over people. One where each American has access to Medicare-like choices.

Let's start with health insurance, which is too unaffordable for many. On top of dealing a $1 trillion blow to federal health care funding, Republicans last year drove up premiums for millions who buy health insurance on their own. Beginning next year, Republicans will force families in Medicaid programs like the Oregon Health Plan to fill out extra paperwork to prove multiple times over they are working, in school, or cannot work. These Americans will have to fill out mountains of paperwork to prove they're eligible and to keep their health care once they have it.

This bureaucracy has been carefully designed to delay and deny care for many who are eligible, planting corporate suits in between your doctor and your sick child, spouse, and common sense. All the while, deductibles balloon into thousands or tens of thousands of dollars that make insurance meaningless.

I'm working to end insurance company abuses that delay and deny care. Most importantly, I want every family in Oregon to have the right to choose something better: a public Medicare-like health plan that's affordable and fair if private options aren't working for them.

Health insurance isn't the only part of health care needing repair. Prescription drugs remain too expensive. Republicans voted against giving Medicare the power to lower prices, $35 insulin, free vaccines, and a $2,000 cap on seniors' drug costs.

More must be done to hold Big Pharma accountable for providing a better deal for seniors and taxpayers, and expanding these savings to all health care plans. Instead, Donald Trump is making meaningless backroom deals with Big Pharma CEOs and handing billions in bailouts to corporations while seniors pay more for life-saving cancer drugs.

Finally, there's an additional urgent challenge: securing long-term care for Americans. Every day, more than 10,000 Americans reach retirement age — the equivalent of filling every seat in Portland's Moda Center every two days. Today, most families face impossible choices when a loved one can no longer live independently: spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on care out-of-pocket, or become full-time caregivers while juggling their own jobs and families.

After decades of delay, it's time for an affordable home care guarantee for families that will help seniors age safely in their homes and reduce stress and strain on loved ones.

None of this will be easy. At every turn, entrenched corporate interests will try to force themselves ahead of families, instead protecting their bloated bottom lines. Republicans are doing their dirty work by delivering death by a thousand cuts to an already-failing system. It's patients and their families paying the price.

So, as we chart this new course, your input, experiences, and voice should be paramount. I need to hear your stories, ideas and views on how to make health care affordable, fair, and simple for all Oregonians. That's what's needed to build a health care future that works for all. Visit tinyurl.com/Wydenreimagine to make your voice heard.

Ron Wyden is Democratic U.S. senator representing Oregon.