[herring_RN]

Field Poll: California Nurses Association Most Favorably Viewed Group in Healthcare Arena

High Approval Ratings Consistent with Public's Support of 'Medicare for All' or Single-payer Healthcare

OAKLAND, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With talk of a new effort to enact healthcare reform surfacing in Sacramento, a new field poll this week illustrates that Californians will once again pay particular attention to the voice of the California Nurses Association and registered nurses.

A poll this week by the influential Field Institute released documented that CNA had the highest favorable rating of all the groups, politicians, and institutions engaged in the healthcare debate that dominated much of the state's public policy debate over the past year.

The public gave CNA and nurses an overall approval rating of 53 per cent and a disapproval rating of just 15 percent, for a net of 38 percent -- in sharp contrast to other central figures in the healthcare policy fight -- particularly the health insurance industry which scored an abysmal 55 percent negative rating….

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20080501/AQTH14701052008-1.html

[RN4MERCY]

Originally Posted by herring_RN

Field Poll: California Nurses Association Most Favorably Viewed Group in Healthcare Arena

High Approval Ratings Consistent with Public's Support of 'Medicare for All' or Single-payer Healthcare

OAKLAND, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With talk of a new effort to enact healthcare reform surfacing in Sacramento, a new field poll this week illustrates that Californians will once again pay particular attention to the voice of the California Nurses Association and registered nurses.

A poll this week by the influential Field Institute released documented that CNA had the highest favorable rating of all the groups, politicians, and institutions engaged in the healthcare debate that dominated much of the state's public policy debate over the past year.

The public gave CNA and nurses an overall approval rating of 53 per cent and a disapproval rating of just 15 percent, for a net of 38 percent -- in sharp contrast to other central figures in the healthcare policy fight -- particularly the health insurance industry which scored an abysmal 55 percent negative rating….

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20080501/AQTH14701052008-1.html

Once again, nurses have an incredible opportunity to shape and lead the public policy debate regarding single-payer healthcare in the USA. The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.

This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

It's imperative that all nurses support HR 676, to insure that patients have access to all medically necessary healthcare. The public trusts us to be advocates, and we must work to remove the iniquities and barriers to care, and restore the public health infrastructure. It's the right thing to do! Please join in this initiative. The health of our patients and the future of our profession is at stake.
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/