Obamacare and Nursing.. what do you think?

Nurses Activism

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I know that I am possibly opening up a can of ugly worms. I hope that in spite of differing opinions, that this thread can remain friendly and a simple exchange of ideas and opinions.

As a beginning nursing student, I am being told that there is this looming nursing shortage and that there is great job security. A little research on my own shows me that in my particular state, there definitely is a decent population of still practicing nurses who are 60 years and older who will be retiring soon, which would open up the way for us who are just getting started. More and more emphasis is also being put on the new healthcare law and how it will open the doors for more people to access medical care which again will increase the need for staffing.

I grew up in a country with a socialistic government, which also includes healthcare for everyone. I have seen how the hospitals are understaffed, and you are lucky if you get to spend 5 minutes with your physician, and you are not in control over which healthcare facility you can go to. I know that the new bill isn't necessarily socialistic, but there are socialistic principles in it.

As a nursing student, I can't help but wonder how this is going to affect my future as a nurse. I know that nurses talk among themselves and things trickle down from above onto the floors. Nothing is going to keep me from becoming a nurse. I am not in it for the money, but rather I feel somehow "called." However, I believe that it's good to be prepared for times ahead so that I can adjust accordingly.

How do you think that Obamacare is going to affect how care is delivered?

By the way, this is NOT a homework assignment of any kind. I am merely looking for for a friendly exchange of ideas and opinions.

Please explain to me what is "socialistic" about the ACA. The government isn't taking over any hospitals or insurance companies.

While I agree that it is not prototypical socialized medicine, I believe the OP is accurately pointing to the greatly enhanced government regulation of health services that is part of the ACA, which is a feature of socialized medicine. FYI: I'm all about healthcare reform, & the word socialism isn't scary to me.

Specializes in critical care, cardiac icu, er.

I will not quote politicians or policy, I will give you the facts about what is happening right now in my hospital because of obamacare. I work in a large level 1 trauma center that owns 6 hospitals of varying sizes around the state. We have had 300 layoffs thru out the system with 150 of which were nurses. We were told it was because the hospital is "tightening the budget" getting ready for the impact obamacare will have on them. We are also a union hospital and I am on the negotiating team. We are working on a new contract as I type because our currant contract is up Dec 31, 2012. We have been told at the table, by management, there will be no pay raises in the new contract. We of course are negotiating with them, but so far they are holding firm. At this point right now there is a hiring freeze in place and new nurses are working as nurses aides because they can not find a job with in 50 miles of this hospital.

October of 2012 under obamacare, the hospitals will not get paid if a patient is admitted with in 30 days of discharge with the same diagnosis. That is more than half my patient population!!! We call them "frequent fliers".

If the hospital loses money, that trickles down to less nurses, which in turn, leads to poor patient safety.

I don't really like the effect of obamacare on my hospital. What do you think?

I will not quote politicians or policy, I will give you the facts about what is happening right now in my hospital because of obamacare. I work in a large level 1 trauma center that owns 6 hospitals of varying sizes around the state. We have had 300 layoffs thru out the system with 150 of which were nurses. We were told it was because the hospital is "tightening the budget" getting ready for the impact obamacare will have on them. We are also a union hospital and I am on the negotiating team. We are working on a new contract as I type because our currant contract is up Dec 31, 2012. We have been told at the table, by management, there will be no pay raises in the new contract. We of course are negotiating with them, but so far they are holding firm. At this point right now there is a hiring freeze in place and new nurses are working as nurses aides because they can not find a job with in 50 miles of this hospital.

October of 2012 under obamacare, the hospitals will not get paid if a patient is admitted with in 30 days of discharge with the same diagnosis. That is more than half my patient population!!! We call them "frequent fliers".

If the hospital loses money, that trickles down to less nurses, which in turn, leads to poor patient safety.

I don't really like the effect of obamacare on my hospital. What do you think?

That's one of the things I don't get about the whole thing. The whole not being able to get paid if patient is readmitted with same diagnosis. Some members of the population, like for instance the COPD patients, are very vulnerable to certain infections, which might have them in and out of the hospital on a regular basis. Should we force them to go to a different facility,when the one they were in the first time has their record? That disrupts the continuity of care!

I see some of the good parts about the bill, which are the parts that most people would want to focus on, like coverage for pre-existing conditions. However, the parts that concern me is how the government expects to pay for this, and why are they supposedly cutting Medicare benefits which go to fund healthcare for a population that is generally very dependent upon it. Like stated about, if hospitals can't get funded (reimbursed etc) for the care that they provide, then that snowballs downhill and in the end not only do the patients lose but the healthcare providers lose too.

You better just stop listening to mainstream media all together if you want real news. It's naive to believe that mainstream media portrays any truth whatsoever. It's also naive to believe that this country isn't in some serious trouble with finance...

Exactly.

Overall, I'm scared what it will do to employed nurses. I'm lucky enough to have finally found a job. Now I'm scared that because of the higher taxes, businesses will not be able to hire as many people as they want and therefore not have enough staff which increases nurse : patient ratio. This is not good. It's terrifying. I'm even scared of getting a pay cut.

Exactly.

Overall, I'm scared what it will do to employed nurses. I'm lucky enough to have finally found a job. Now I'm scared that because of the higher taxes, businesses will not be able to hire as many people as they want and therefore not have enough staff which increases nurse : patient ratio. This is not good. It's terrifying. I'm even scared of getting a pay cut.

Even if this were true (and it isn't) Low taxes on the wealthy DO NOT create jobs. The past 10 years may have taught one this much... the only thing that creates jobs is DEMAND. or consumers. or a healthy middle class. Extreme wealth concentration,which we have, in part because of regressive taxation burdens, has stagnated job creation actually.

As for all the people , presumably Mitt Romney voters, who claim that their hospitals are laying off nurses because they can't afford "Obamacare" (which pays for itself actually via the insurance mandates) that would be really really really odd...because almost none of it takes effect for 2 more years.

The best part of the Affordable Care Act is that it uses technology to save costs. But maybe you'd rather that they kept reducing staff or payments for services instead...

Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.

As for all the people , presumably Mitt Romney voters, who claim that their hospitals are laying off nurses because they can't afford "Obamacare" (which pays for itself actually via the insurance mandates) that would be really really really odd...because almost none of it takes effect for 2 more years.

Actually, that is incorrect. Obamacare changes began in 2010.

http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/timeline_chart4-8final.pdf

Specializes in Critical Care.
Actually, that is incorrect. Obamacare changes began in 2010.

http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/timeline_chart4-8final.pdf

Actually, "because almost none of it takes effect for 2 more years" is a pretty fair description, some changes took place in 2010 through 2013, although the bulk of it and the most substantial changes begin in 2014.

Specializes in Adult/Ped Emergency and Trauma.

Anytime bureaucrats in government start making healthcare decisions, with NO healthcare experience, it concerns me.

The post office isn't a monopoly on parcel/snail mail, but it's always in deficit, debt, and if it was a private business- would have been bankrupt long before I was born.

Many hate the capitalism aspects of Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and healthcare- but it's also why we get a much much bigger paycheck than UK, Canadian, or Irish Nurses.

I had a British Nurse Educator at a large Southern US University tell me, "find out what your local public school teachers make, and you'll get a better idea of what you'll make in that area(warning about future effects of a centralized system of Government Controlled Healthcare)."

There are 40, maybe 70 million uninsured in America. Another 100 million can't afford to USE their insurance, due to the high deductibles. The uninsured use ERs, and don't pay. Under Obamacare, 20 or maybe 50 million people will now be able to obtain insurance. How can adding millions of newly insured patients, indicate a monetary loss for hospitals? It can't, and doesn't. Hospitals are using it as a technique to save money (rather, see the end of this sentence), scare employees, and etc...but at the same time they are all spending billions on new construction (to be prepared for the huge influz of, paying patients)? For those of unaware of Obamacare, Wickipedia has an in-depth detail of the consequences, and benefits- the best I've seen, to try to make sense of the chaos that will happen in 2014. But there are going to be a LOT of winners, and losers..it all depends on your income, and whether your employer will retain you as full time and be required to provide you a plan. The biggest losers will be individual plan owners with significant incomes- your premiums will 'explode', and also employees that are cut below full time, and forced into the individual plan system. The biggest winner? HOSPITALS, since almost everyone will now have insurance to pay THEM.

That whole "pass it to find out what's in it" thing still bothers me.

Have you seen how much insurance premiums are going up due to Obamacare?6.3% Health Premium Increases Projected for 2013

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
Anytime bureaucrats in government start making healthcare decisions, with NO healthcare experience, it concerns me.

The post office isn't a monopoly on parcel/snail mail, but it's always in deficit, debt, and if it was a private business- would have been bankrupt long before I was born.

Many hate the capitalism aspects of Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and healthcare- but it's also why we get a much much bigger paycheck than UK, Canadian, or Irish Nurses.

I had a British Nurse Educator at a large Southern US University tell me, "find out what your local public school teachers make, and you'll get a better idea of what you'll make in that area(warning about future effects of a centralized system of Government Controlled Healthcare)."

Even in the for profit health care system nurses are not big winners when it comes to wages, even though the health outcomes for patients are clearly fixed to our professional efforts and duties.

Most of us expect a reasonable wage for our professional services, but most are not looking to get wealthy...one doesn't choose nursing as a career path if wealth is your goal.

The US post office is in trouble because of the activities of our legislators who seem to possess little in the way of "critical thinking" skills.

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