Nurses in Kansas Support Health Insurance Reform

Nurses in Kansas and across the nation have joined President Obama in pushing for health insurance reform. One of the longstanding purposes of the Kansas State Nurses Association is working for the “improvement of health standards and the availability of health care services for all people.” One of the chief roles a nurse has is to be a staunch patient advocate, so it's no surprise we stand boldly for reform. This past weekend, I had a discussion with a colleague who practices in the Kansas City, KS area about the current health insurance reform debate and our first-hand observations as nurses. She underscored the need for urgent reform from not only a practical perspective, but also touched on the political ramifications that command we take action now: "We see the reality of the need for health care insurance reform everyday in the lack of suitable coverage for our patients, decisions on how our long our patients can be hospitalized, in how carefully we must nurse our documentation to qualify for reimbursement, the cost of our own health care policies, and the unsustainable costs to the state and federal government. For those who insist on obstructive negativity in even talking about how to deal with the health care insurance problem, beware, the likelihood of approaching this problem again in the future will be low with such a high political cost being evident,” she said.

You may have seen the president of the American Nurses Association, Becky Patton, alongside President Obama at the White House on numerous occasions in support of reform. As she stated in her introductory remarks there last Thursday, “We believe a health care system that is patient centered, accessible and delivers quality care for all is something that should not be a partisan or political issue nor the target of scare tactics that no medical professional should support or condone.” She is there, in part, to represent the voice of Kansas nurses. The members of the Kansas State Nurses Association are also members of the American Nurses Association, as we are a one of the many constituent member associations who belong to the ANA.

At KSNA, we devoted a majority of our Legislative Update earlier this month to emphasize why reform is the right thing to do for our patients. The top ten reasons why we, as nurses, support reform are: 1) It ends discrimination for pre-existing conditions 2) It recognizes the importance of advanced registered nurse practitioners in the provision of primary care 3) It ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays 4) It provides funding for increased nursing workforce 5) It ends cost-sharing for preventive care 6) It ends dropping of coverage for the seriously ill 7) It ends gender discrimination 8) It ends annual or lifetime caps on coverage 9) It extends coverage for young adults 10) It guarantees insurance renewal.

The aforementioned KSNA Legislative Update also debunked in specific detail the top five myths surrounding HR 3200 which are: 1) That hospitals will receive less money and will thereby be forced to decrease nursing staff 2) That health care will be rationed 3) That all non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free health care services 4) That the government mandates a program for orders for end-of-life; the government will have a say in how your life ends. The government will specify which doctors can write an end of life order and will decide what level of treatment you will have during end-of-life care. 5) The government will have access to your individual bank account.

Nurses have a great working relationship with President Obama that goes all the way back to his days as a State Senator in Springfield, IL. A couple of years ago, the head lobbyist with the Illinois Nurses Association was in Topeka to address KSNA's annual Day At The Legislature gathering. Then Sen. Obama had just announced that he was running for the Presidency. In the car on the way over to the event, I asked her if she had ever worked with him while he was in the Illinois Legislature. She replied, “Sen. Obama said he'd carry water for nurses any day.” Barack Obama had always been there in support of and working with nurses to ensure that we received the wages and overtime pay we deserved and had earned, that we got the time off we needed and weren't forced into mandatory overtime and that there were safe nurse-to-patient ratios instituted.

The truth is, if health insurance reform wasn't good for all patients in America then nurses wouldn't be supporting it. Who do you trust: nurses or politicians and cable/radio show hosts?

Comments (1)

Will Corsair

Craig, thanks for your analysis. As a former social worker, and husband of an RN, I appreciate everything you and the KSNA are doing.

One of the things we're faced with now, like it or not, is the shift away from a discussion of the merits of various reform proposals to the literal bottom line question: "What will this cost?" And your colleague hit the nail on the head when she said, "...the likelihood of approaching this problem again in the future will be low with such a high political cost being evident,” she said.

Unfortunately, Obama wasted precious time on three major initiatives: 1) Health Care. In April or May he should have been crystal clear about what he did and didn't want. Instead, he let the far right take the initiative in defining it as an issue of freedom and death panels. 2) Afghanistan. Again, talking about it earlier on would have produced a different discussion. 3) The Economy and Financial Reforms. He has a tremendous uphill battle now, because he dilly dallied around for too long.

What this means, unfortunately, is that regardless of the merits of changes in the above-three issues, the politics of obstruction can always fall back on the old familiar, "Who's going to pay for all of this? Our great-grandchildren are going to be saddled with this debt."

Even though I supported Obama, I never "drank the Obama Kool-Aid" as Sean Hannity calls it. Obama is, first and foremost, a politician. Unfortunately, he also has feet of clay, and he spent too much time pleasing as many people as he could. In the process he let others define the discussion for far too long. I fear that he has really done substantial damage to Progressive issues and he now must compromise severely.

I think Progressives must begin the hard-choice discussions about how to live within our means and pay for everything we'd like to see happen. And the tough discussions about what these choices mean to our quality of life and to our local communities.

As an OWG (older white guy), I find myself becoming more conservative about fiscal issues. While I know there are answers, we have to be willing to ask all of the questions, and not just say, "Let's do this because it's right."

Posted by Will Corsair | September 14, 2009 8:37 AM

Posted on September 14, 2009 08:37

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