When Optum, a national health care corporation under parent company UnitedHealth Group, purchased Oregon Medical Group (OMG) in 2020, a mass exodus of primary care providers in the Eugene metro area soon followed. Then, in 2023, PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at University District closed the only hospital in Eugene.
State Rep. Lisa Fragala, D-Eugene to Creswell, said her constituents have been deeply impacted by these changes to health care access.
Fragala sees Eugene as “the canary in the coal mine for patients losing access to the critical care they need in Oregon due to corporate takeovers and an over-emphasis on a for-profit-based health care industry.”…