Newly anointed state senator Chip Shields is an employee of Hands On Medicine, a domestic professional corporation. He works for his wife, Shelda R. Holmes, a family nurse practitioner.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes has refused to join either the Oregon Nurses Association or the Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, newly minted state senator Chip Shields, oppose the Single Payer solution to Oregon's/America's moral and economic health care crisis that has been adopted by the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals, the city of Portland and Multnomah county among others (see list below). This puts Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, freshly coined state senator Chip Shields,  in conflict and at odds with the nurses of Oregon, the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, Mad As Hell Doctors and the political leadership of Portland and Multnomah county among others (see list below).

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, newly appointed state senator Chip Shields, declined the opportunity to testify before the Portland city council and the Multnomah county commission in support of their resolutions endorsing a Single Payer solution which passed unanimously in both jurisdictions.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, public employee state senator Chip Shields, refused to deny that Hands On Medicine provided health insurance for Chip Shields while he served and is serving as an elected legislator with full health benefits provided by the taxpayers.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, former state representative Chip Shields, supported a $300,000,000 tax/fee which INCREASED not decreased the costs of health insurance policies for both individuals, governments and businesses statewide, that include Hands On Medicine clients and his constituents.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, former state representative Chip Shields now senator Shields, will support raising the remaining $700,000,000 of the BILLION dollar health care legislation in the next session of the legislature that will surely, again, INCREASE not decrease the costs of private health insurance policies for both individuals, government and businesses statewide, that include their clients and his constituents.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, former state representative Chip Shields, approved of legislative tactics which denied their clients, his constituents and all Oregonians the right to discuss and debate a Single Payer solution in the legislative assembly and during statewide forums on health care reform where doctors and nurses were shut down and shut out when they tried to discuss Single Payer as an option.

Former state representative Chip Shields twice refused to acknowledge the letter below sent by elected public officials in Oregon to put Single Payer on the legislative agenda for consideration.

Family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, former state representative Chip Shields, now senator Shields, are part of the problem NOT the solution to Oregon's/America's moral and economic health care crisis.

The resolutions of support for a Single Payer system made by the parties below are declarations of WAR against the despised, failed, for-profit private health insurance industry and those that believe that health care is a privilege not a right of American citizenship. This includes family nurse practitioner Shelda Holmes and her employee/husband, former state representative Chip Shields, now senator Shields.

So the question arises: How do you deal with these enemies of Single Payer health care reform who are friends and allies of the medical-industrial complex that oppose Oregon elected officials - public employees - voters and taxpayers having EQUAL ACCESS to the SAME LEVEL of health care and support a perpetuation of our current multitiered health insurance CLASS system?

Boycott Their Business, Hands On Medicine (http://www.handsonmedicine.net/index.html), and tell senator Shields to repeal the health insurance taxes of the monstrously complex, illegitimately derived health care bill recently passed by the Oregon legislature and introduce and support any and all Single Payer bills for consideration in a fresh start of legislative health care reform in January 2011.

In a health care war where 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance and the medical-industrial complex and their employees in the congress and the Oregon legislature would like to maintain the status quo it is necessary to fight back or lose by default.

If you're not angry over the failure of Oregon legislators and America's congress to break the chains of servitude to the medical-industrial complex of corporations then you're not paying attention.


Richard Ellmyer

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The following groups support a Single Payer Solution to America's/Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis:

AFL-CIO

AFSCME District Council 75

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757

American Federation of Government Employees Local 2157

American Federation of Teachers Local 5017

City of Portland

Democratic Party of Lane County

Freedom Socialist Party

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees

Lane County Commission

Mad As Hell Doctors

Multnomah County Commission

Oregon Academy of Family Physicians

Oregon Education Association

Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals

Oregon Nurses Association

Oregon Teamsters Local 206

Pacific Green Party of Oregon

Painters Local 10

State Council of Machinists (IAM)

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February 8, 2009 [This message was also sent in 2007. My single payer Oregon Community Health Care Bill was written in November 2004.]

Dear House Speaker Hunt and Senate President Courtney Et. Al.:

The current legislative debate over health care reform in our state does not include our view that the profit oriented private health insurance industry must not be the model upon which a solution to Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis should be based and that Oregon elected officials - public employees - voters and taxpayers must have EQUAL ACCESS to the SAME LEVEL of health care NOT a perpetuation of our current multitiered health insurance CLASS system.

We request that you find a place holder bill in each chamber which would substitute in its entirety the language of the Oregon Community Health Care Bill (see attached) so that an alternative choice may be discussed and debated this session. The Oregon Community Health Care Bill is the only current fully formed piece of proposed legislation which supports our vision of health care reform. We would welcome others that also meet our requirements.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Richard Ellmyer - Oregon Community Health Care Bill author 2004

Sam Adams - Portland City Council 2007

Jeff Cogen - Multnomah County Commissioner 2007

Edwars "Chip" Enbody - Hubbard City Council 2007

Darrell Flood - Mayor of Lafayette 2007

Bill Hall - Lincoln County Commissioner 2007

Jim Needham - Mollala City Council 2007

Michelle Ripple - Wilsonville City Council 2007

Mary Schamehorn - Mayor of Bandon 2007

Pete Sorenson - Lane County Commissioner 2007

John Frohnmayer - Former candidate for US Senate 2008

Tim Grimes - Staton City Council 2008

David P. Trott - Mayor City of Umatilla 2008

Bill Dwyer - Lane County Commissioner 2008

Dan K. Cummings - Ontario City Council President 2008

Mark Camra - Toledo City Councilor 2009

Don Porter - Mayor of Long Creek 2009

Thomas Bradley - Long Creek City Council 2009

Fred Drake - Long Creek City Council 2009

Alvin Hunt - Long Creek City Council 2009

[Copies of this letter were sent to all members of the 2007 and 2009 Oregon Legislature]