Nurse Notes: Taxing Healthcare Benefits Will Harm My Patients

Onekidneynurse · Jan 8, 2010

we need other reforms to protect patients and families in final talks on healthcare reform
the nation's largest union and professional organization of registered nurses -- national nurses united (nnu) -- is today calling on house members to hold the line in opposing a tax on workers' healthcare benefits and has called for other changes in the final healthcare legislation to expand affordability and crack down on insurance industry abuses.
it is unconscionable that workers and families with employer-sponsored health plans, who receive virtually no benefits from the proposed legislation, would have their health coverage taxed and seriously eroded.
...advocates of the tax have made clear their intent: to force working people into cheaper, high deductible plans that provide less coverage and shift more costs to employees. the inevitable effect will be more people skipping needed medical care, enduring much higher out-of-pocket costs and risking financial ruin due to medical bills. ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-burger/nurse-notes-taxing-health_b_414017.html

oh the healthcare reform won't work? imagine that. basically what many of us have been saying for a long time.

allnurses Guide · Jan 8, 2010

I think the United States CAN improve our healthcare payment system so all of us can get needed healthcare. We are not powerless. We the people can work for what is right.

...In addition to calling on Congressional leaders to drop the excise tax, NNU is calling on Congress to make other changes in the final bill, including:
1. A state waiver to ERISA, the federal employee retirement system, to allow states to pass Medicare for all/single-payer reforms without a court challenge from healthcare corporations.
2. Medicaid expansion to 150% of the poverty level (the House version) rather than the more limited Senate Medicaid expansion. Half of the increased coverage under the bill comes through Medicaid expansion; with the failure of Congress to stop the price gouging of the insurers and drug companies, the broadest possible increase in Medicaid eligibility is essential for American families.
3. Closure of the loopholes on the insurance regulations in the bills that ostensibly ban rescissions (insurers dropping people when they get sick) and refusal to sell policies to people with pre-existing conditions.
The repeated concessions Congress and the White House have made to opponents and obstructionists have gravely weakened the promise of reform. Nurses will continue to campaign for more cost-effective, comprehensive reform by expanding Medicare to cover everyone, and passing single payer bills in individual states.
In the meantime, Congress has one final opportunity to fix some of the worst problems in this legislation. We will be closely monitoring the votes of our legislators on the final bill....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-burger/nurse-notes-taxing-health_b_414017.html