Health Care pay decrease with new health care plan?

Just curious...you'll have nearly $100k in student loans when you graduate with a BSN?
Are you attending a private school? Do you need to borrow for everything? Are you using an scholarships or grants?
I expect compensation to probably hold steady for awhile after the implementation of reform. Ultimately, if it is a single-payer system, i.e. akin to Medicare, I would expect salaries to decrease.

I'm with 3boysmom3, if I don't have the money to buy it outright, then I do without (Except for my house).That has been my motto for many, many years. I was raising 6 kids, and I could not afford to put myself at financial risk. Now even though I am okay financially, I need to leave myself open to be able to help my kids if they get in trouble. They adopted my habit of not buying on credit, but if they lost their jobs they might need help. So I still don't spend much.

I don't know what the new health care plan will do to our pay. But something needs to be done. As it is, so many of my nurses and aides at work do not have any insurance and they are unable to go to the doctor or pay for meds.

As for the student loans...there are many reasons when they will allow you to defer payments...loss of job, illness, going back to school, etc. As long as they know you are trying, they will work with you. I certainly wouldn't panic. It'll all work out somehow.

They don't need to decrease salaries, they need to eliminate the wasteful spending. Hmmm. A sort of governmental BM process involving health care spending if you will.

For example, there's absolutely no reason docs need 2 or 3 chest x-rays in the span of a month for any patient or every time they happen to visit another facility etc. So, what's wrong with transferring the "recent" x-rays instead? I know.. they can't make money if they don't take extra x-rays...huh? Well that's precisely the sort nonsense that's going to come to screeching halt under any newly proposed "public funded" health care plan.

...Ever shake your head wondering why they are ordering an MRI for a patient that actually needs a colonoscopy done instead? Besides, they can't do a biopsy with an MRI so what's the point?? Well, I know the point.. I suppose the solution here is to just go ahead and lets do both tests instead huh?! ...lol ...You all know exactly where I am coming from here. It's just a big waste of money on completely unnecessary diagnostic testing sometimes costing $1000's of dollars each incident at the end of the day. But at the end of the actual day... we can add up 100's of thousands of "extra" dollars needlessly wasted and taxpayers will definitely not be footing this sort of hospital bill under a public funded plan.

Some people (especially practitioners) are calling this new proposed heath care phenomenon "working with less," but I prefer to call it the actual direction we need to be going with future health care spending. Let's face it, a liter of NS doesn't cost $300 so why exactly should taxpayers assume the overly inflated costs? Well, the simple answer is - No, they won't nor should they in the first place for that matter. These and similar costs need to come back to earth where they belong. Meet Joe Taxpayer, Joe will be here monitoring these costs from now on.

That's the issue.. Wasteful spending and erroneous billing practices occurring in health care. It's not about lowering wages for health care workers. In fact, "wages" account for such a small percentage in the bigger picture and inflated costs of things, it's a non issue by comparison.

So yes, they will most likely make attempts to "reduce" facility operating costs while controlling over inflation and there will be health care spending accountability involved. It will be monitored closely by the public eye. After all, it's public money being spent to operate the facility. However, this is actually a good thing that will not only save money in general, but it also serves to actually increase the customer base at the same time!

I agree with some suggesting the need to address the nurse shortage issue. However, a nursing shortage is actually a good thing in terms of maintaining higher wages anyways. No worries in that particular area in my opinion. I suspect we will continue to experience a nursing shortage for some time in any newly implemented public health care system, primarily due to an increase in utilization by the public. I am suspecting they already know this will most likely occur. Nursing education programs will most likely need to be included and addressed as a key integral part of any future proposed public health care reform plan.

Your turn.

My Best.