If you’re a business owner, if you’re a taxpayer, be very afraid. Mission creep has set in and Metro now thinks its the business of regional government to do something about overseeing health care. You think the Oregon Health Plan is a fiscal black hole which mandated rationed health care and removing choice? Wait until Metro meddles in health care. Who’s behind it? Well the same people behind no borders, higher minimum wages, and the “I Hate Walmart” movement, of course, the Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.).The Portland Tribune takes a look at the issue with Friday’s editorial:

Metro councilors will receive a staff report next month outlining a variety of health care-related options. Some activists and Local 49 of the Service Employees International Union are raising the possibility of Metro taking on a health care role.
One idea is for Metro to appoint a community board that would create a comprehensive health care plan for the region and also be asked to review hospital facility plans.
The union and other groups prodding Metro into the health care arena say they are particularly concerned that hospital systems are spending more on expansion and growing their market share than they are on persistent needs such as mental health services, primary care and emergency care.

Remember Thursday night when I talked (AM 860, 5-8pm) about Portland’s future and how it would take cues from San Francisco on giving away (at the taxpayer expense, of course) health care to anyone who lives there and in Chicago where the food police are on the march, I thought we might have a little time. However, it appears the time has come to start yelling…or leaving.