Cover the Uninsured Week March 10-16

Nurses General Nursing

Published

As some may have heard or read or seen on TV in the form of informational commercials, in the United States, there are 41+ million people who are not covered by health insurance. As the commercial goes, 8 out of 10 of those uninsured are people who are employed.

Cover the Uninsured Week is "an effort to sensitize the public and opinion leaders to the plight of the more than 41 million Americans who lack health insurance."

About Cover the Uninsured Week

Cover the Uninsured Week is an effort to bring this important and ignored issue to the forefront by an impressively large group of partners, patrons, benefactors, sponsors, and supporters which include the ANA to the YMCA and many reputable groups in-between. AND by individuals like you and me.

http://covertheuninsuredweek.org/involved/

Some facts:

*The uninsured represent 14.6 percent of the population.

*Uninsured Americans come from every race, age and ethnic group.

*Nearly a quarter of them are children."

More facts

As nurses, we have the opportunity to help. Help individuals by learning what resources are available to them.

Find out more about the legislation that is being proposed by Congress and the administration of our current President:

Legislation.

This IS NOT about a Single Payer healthcare system or Universal Healthcare, this IS about adressing the very serious healthcare crisis that is happening NOW in this country.

"The Covering The Uninsured Campaign does not endorse a particular solution to the problem of the uninsured, but it invites you to join the national discussion so that practical solutions can be found."

Get involved. Sign the proclamation! When you do it is forwarded to a company called GMMB, an advocacy agency who is uniting the voices into one large ROAR! Print it, take it to work, collect signatures and mail it to Sarah Moss c/o GMMB 1010 Wisconsin Ave NW Suite 800, Washington DC, 20007 . That's my plan.

It's the least we can do to try and make a contribution for the better.

Thanks, Sally! Will do!

3/10/2003

"There is no greater domestic policy crisis in the United States than the lack of medical insurance coverage for tens of millions in this great land."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030310/flm001_1.html

"Too often, Americans who have health coverage tend to think of the uninsured as 'other people'."

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/amn_03/edca0203.htm

"Managed-care plans and insurance companies make billions while denying care and refusing coverage. Patients deserve better. What can be done?"

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/healthpolicy/

Bipartisan Support

"U.S. Senators from both sides of the aisle expressed their concern for the issue of the uninsured and their support for Cover the Uninsured Week in a letter distributed to all 100 U.S. Senators. The letter, was signed by U.S. Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR), John Breaux (D-LA), George V. Voinovich (R-OH) and Max Baucus (D-MT)."

http://covertheuninsuredweek.org/media/CTUW.Senate.pdf

Drop a note to your Senator--do it this week!

I'm hoping that the lack of replies to this thread doesn't reflect the lack of interest in this very important topic.

For those of you who are tired of your tax dollars being misued, or think that those who receive public medical assistance are riding on your coat-tails, then here's an opportunity for you to speak out and also learn about the enormous problems our healthcare system faces that goes far beyond "lazy" people sucking the system for all it's worth. Here's your chance to speak out. Nothing ever changes with apathy.

Sleepyeyes: :kiss

Thanks,Sally - something worth reading and thinking about here for a change- I'm tired of running away from the virtual posse, and reading stupid threads like "what kind of toilet paper are you?" from the cyber sorority....

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

My health system invoved in this event. We are having the Petition posted in the hospital lobby/major entrances for all to sign and will have petition at my homecare agency too.

1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1= can equal thounds or millions of signature. Only requires a few keystrokes via above links.

Signed... :)

Back on Feb 27 NRSKarenRN posted a link to a report by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the Activism/Politics Forum. It's called State of the States, Bridging the Health Coverage Gap. I haven't read the entire report, yet, still working on it, but it is full of detail. https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32047

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of the partners in Cover the Uninsured Week.

Originally posted by sanakruz

from the cyber sorority....

Yes, sanacruz. Yes.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

From Nurse week:

MORE GO WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE FOR SHORT PERIODS

Copyright 2003 P.G. Publishing Co.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

March 6, 2003 Thursday SOONER EDITION

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/wpublisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=59&docId=l:18681575&topicId=13670&start=2&topics=single

Nearly 75 million Americans under the age of 65 -- nearly one-third of the total -- were uninsured for at least one month during 2001-02.

In Pennsylvania, which traditionally has had one of the lower rates of uninsured residents, 2.4 million people, or 23.4 percent of the population, were without insurance for a time during that same period.

The numbers released yesterday by the Washington, D.C., consumer group Families USA give a better sense of just how many Americans deal with the loss of health insurance, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.

Annual reports from the U.S. Census Bureau, by contrast, gauge how many people were uninsured throughout the previous year, Pollack said.

The most recent of these reports was issued in September and put the national uninsured number for 2001 at 41.2 million, or 14.6 percent of the population. In Pennsylvania, the uninsured number was 1.1 million or 9.2 percent of the state.

"Now that almost one out of three non-elderly Americans experience significant periods without health insurance, the uninsured problem is no longer simply an issue of altruism about other people," Pollack said. "Now it's one of self-interest for all of us."

Pollack said that of the 74.7 million Americans under 65 who were temporarily uninsured during the two-year period, most lacked health insurance for more than six months.

The Families USA report was released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in advance of next week's Cover the Uninsured Week events across the country.

Locally, Mayor Tom Murphy and Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey are scheduled to participate in a town hall meeting Monday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Throughout the week, events will be held at local colleges, hospitals and health centers.

More people are going without insurance for a variety of factors, Pollack said. Rising health-care costs and a soft labor market mean that more employers are passing on the costs of health care to their employees. Unemployment is up as well and most non-elderly people rely on employer coverage.

The newest factor is that state fiscal crises are causing cutbacks in Medicaid programs, which have served as key safety nets for the uninsured, Pollack said.

A Web site -- http://covertheuninsuredweek.org -- includes more information. Click on the "Events Near You" tab.

Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by sanakruz

Thanks,Sally - something worth reading and thinking about here for a change- I'm tired of running away from the virtual posse, and reading stupid threads like "what kind of toilet paper are you?" from the cyber sorority....

Hmm. Too bad sanakruz. We must've missed and could've used your input on nursing philosophy, theories, as well as input and insight regarding research methods, designs and thesis theoretical frameworks.

There are those kinds of threads around - I guess you just need to look more.

Nursing Theory thread

Theoretical framework

Thesis thread Another thesis related thread

Not to mention our Book Club, which reads the literature of Jane Austen and the like, which seems to lack discussion participation. We could use some suggestions for another literary read. Did you have any input?

Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread Sally. We actually were informed about this at my place of employment. Thanks for the quick links.

MY hubby and I are good examples....working our keisters off ...and no insurance....WE are in the "between a rock and a hard place"..

It drains us finacially when one of us has to go to dr's...not to mention ER......

Thanks for the info!!

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