February 3 is likely to find 50,000 Oregonians in a foul mood. If, as expected, Measure 30 fails, that many people will be cut from the Oregon Health Plan and left without coverage altogether.

The last few weeks have been a particularly rough patch for health care. Two Portland hospitals announced their closures, with administrators pointing to the inadequacy of Medicaid payments and the hospitals' exclusion from major insurers' preferred networks. As those doors were shutting, a health care study predicted that more and more retirees will be scrambling to find insurance, as employers increasingly are reneging on commitments to cover them for life.

If these headlines have been easy enough to gloss over, chances are that health care calamities of one sort or another will hit close to even your home in the months ahead. My own physician recently sent an impassioned letter to her patients, telling us that after 20 years of practice she has, sadly, decided to quit medicine altogether. Too much of her time, she wrote, is spent filling out paperwork; too much of her income is siphoned off for malpractice insurance; too little of her energy is left for the thing she loves -- providing people with good care.

The health care field is, paradoxically, both burgeoning and littered with the remains of those left behind -- disillusioned providers; facilities forced out of business; rural communities underserved; and millions of people for whom health care means emergency rooms, the bill for which you and I pick up in our premiums. This system is so broke, everyone is dissatisfied.

The good thing about dissatisfaction -- it spurs change. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but frustration is a turbocharger. In this issue of Oregon

Business, we profile nine frustrated people who've chosen to take action and lead Oregonians to a better system of care. The task is huge but -- what's the Margaret Mead quote? "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

GENTLER WINDS OF CHANGE have blown through these offices recently. After four years as editor, I'm pleased to make my debut as publisher of Oregon Business. While my mission has been to deliver great editorial content, now my focus will encompass the whole of the magazine to ensure that we're serving you -- our readers and advertisers -- well.

I leave the editor's reins in good hands. Nearly three years ago, I hired Mitchell Hartman as managing editor, then waited (...and waited) for him to move from Southern California, where he was an editor for public radio's Marketplace. Mitchell believes in high-integrity journalism, and he loves Oregon -- essential qualities for the editor of Oregon Business. He'll draw on the talents of Oakley Brooks, Brandon Sawyer and our new managing editor, Christina Dyrness Williams, who helps fill the considerable hole left by Suzanne Stevens' departure for Manhattan.

My new job will demand a lot of legwork -- literally. I'll constantly be crisscrossing the offices to give equal time to advertising, where I'll be tutored by account managers Noelle McEwen and Karen Magistrale, as well as CEO John O'Toole, who's been pinch-hitting as sales director.

But enough about us -- Oregon Business is about you. Please, as we go forward, make sure we hear what's happening in your company, your industry, your world.

If you have comments about any articles you've read in Oregon Business magazine, e-mail us at feedback@oregonbusiness.com.

Copyright 2004 Oregon Business magazine