PR Newswire (press release)
Jan. 31
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-31-2006/0004271975&EDATE= Plan 'Would Increase Crisis, Foster Two Tier Medical Care'
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizations representing over
100,000 registered nurses from California to Maine today sharply criticized
the health care plan expected to be unveiled by President Bush in his State of
the Union speech tonight, warning they would only accelerate the nation's
health care crisis.
The centerpiece of the anticipated administration plan is expansion of
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and tax breaks for consumer spending on medical
care, "two schemes that will do nothing to increase access to health coverage,
improve quality, or control costs," said the American Association of
Registered Nurses in a statement today.
AARN is a coalition of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses
Organizing Committee, Massachusetts Nurses Association, Maine State Nurses
Association, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied
Professionals, New York Professional Nurses Union, and other direct care
nurses.
The conservative ideology behind HSAs is to force patients to spend more
out of their pockets for health services and push more consumers into buying
medical coverage from private insurers. Neither idea will work, said AARN
leaders.
"HSAs simply shift more of the burden of our collapsing healthcare system
onto those least able to meet their medical needs while further enriching the
insurance industry and other healthcare industry corporations that created the
crisis," said CNA/NNOC President Deborah Burger, RN. "It's a heartless
proposal."
"Instead of punishing those who most need care, we ought to be providing
real solutions, such as adopting a single payer, universal healthcare system,
as embodied in HR 676 (introduced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan),"
said MNA President Beth Piknick, RN. AARN members endorsed HR 676 at a meeting
last weekend.
The many problems with the Bush plan, said AARN, include:
-- By forcing consumers and patients to spend more out of their pockets,
it discourages preventive care and penalizes those who can least afford
medical care.
The result will be more people waiting to see medical practitioners and
ending up in emergency rooms, increasing overall costs, or in the public
system, placing further strains on overburdened public hospitals and clinics.
Further, the Bush plan will exaggerate the trend toward a two-tier medical
system and inequality in care delivery, said the AARN, while pricing more
people out of access to care at a time when 40% of Americans cite medical debt
as a major problem.
-- It does nothing to address skyrocketing medical costs.
The major sources of rising costs are the profiteering by drug companies,
HMOs, hospital chains, and other segments of the healthcare industry and huge
administrative overhead, all of which are rewarded by the Bush plan which
blames patients and consumers, not the corporate medical industry for the
health care crisis.
"It was just such flawed thinking that created the current Medicare
prescription fiasco by forcing people to go into private insurance plans for
drug benefits and failing to limit drug company prices," said PASNAP President
Patty Eakin, RN.
Additionally, the bulk of medical services are used by a small percentage
of the population, those with chronic diseases or medical problems and seniors
who will rapidly exhaust any increase in deductibles set by the
administration.
SOURCE California Nurses Association
Web Site:
http://www.calnurses.org
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
