OHCA Spring/Summer 2019

The Oregon Caregiver SPRING/SUMMER 2019 www.ohca.com 20 PROFILE Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham) is chair of the Senate Committee on Health Care and has worked on a wide variety of healthcare issues, including long term care issues, throughout her tenure in the legislature. Can you talk about your background as a nurse and what led you to political office? I am a retired public health nurse, and when I was practicing public health I started out by going into the homes of the elderly in the state of Virginia. They had home health at the time in the public health department, and that was my exposure to long term care. They were so behind the times in Appalachia on reproductive health and women’s issues though that I soon switched to working in the public health clinic. After I moved back to Oregon—I was on the school board at the time—Governor Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham) POLICY MAKER Kitzhaber came to me and asked me to run for office. He was a doctor and I was a nurse, so he valued my experience. I told him, “I don’t know anything about politics. I’ve been working with drug addicted moms and drug addicted babies—what could I do in the legisla- ture?” But my kids were in college, so I told him I’d try. That seat was held by a Republican at the time, and I lost my first race in 1999. However, I learned a lot, and I ran again right after that and won. I spent four years in the House and then went to the Senate where I imme- diately started working on health care issues and also environmental issues. How has your background affected the way you approach health care issues in the legislature? When I got here, I really didn’t know what the nexus was between healthcare and politics. I had no clue that the legislature had so much to do with health policy. After I had my four years in the House, I realized just how many decisions we were making on healthcare. It seemed strange at the time. So, when I got to the Senate, I got excited, and I realized that we could make a difference and get everybody access to care. That was my main focus. I wanted everyone to have access. I have always believed healthcare is a right and that people should have equal access to care. So, I was a nurse and then chair of the healthcare committee and the stars really aligned, and we were able to transform the system. As the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health Care, can you talk about your history working on senior and health care issues? A few years ago, I worked with Dr. Maureen Nash on guardianship issues. That is where I first felt I was making a big difference. There is such abuse in the system where the elderly are being taken advantage of by their siblings or their children. From there, I started working more on senior issues. There had been a focus on children’s health issues, but seniors had sort of been neglected in this area, so I made them a bigger priority. What legislative accomplishment are you most proud to have worked on? I really like the fact that I have been an advocate for expanding scopes of practice. We have dental hygienists, naturopathic physicians, PAs, nurse practitioners, and similar positions who could be doing more, so I’ve been a strong advocate for this. People aren’t getting access to care in rural areas, in migrant work camps, and in similar situations, and there are people who can provide them care. Our whole system needs to look at using different models of care. What is your sense of the healthcare workforce and some of the challenges there? I was getting burned out when I was a nurse. I worry about providers and their burnout levels, and I don’t think we take enough care of them. Working with the elderly who may have cognitive issues and behavioral issues is challenging. Getting people to work with our at-risk and vulnerable population is very tough, especially when that population has mental