Health Care Bill

belgarion · Mar 22, 2010

Who knows? Some parts of it won't kick in until 2020. It will probably be tweaked, twisted, and ammended a few dozen times over the next few years to the point where it will bear no resemblence to its original form.

x_coastie · Mar 22, 2010

I am not sure if anybody knows what the 1000+ page bill will do to health care, especially from the nurses point of view. I doubt if most of the people who voted in favor of it even know what it contains.

-mandate everyone to purchase heath insurance

-cut Medicare

-add to Medicaid

-prevent insurance companies from dropping you for exceeding cost limits

-raise taxes on the rich (200K+ year)

-cut physicians reimbursements for Medicare/Medicaid

It will be years before everything comes to light, but I think it will hurt nurses/physicians working conditions and compensation because there will be more regulation/paperwork and less money going to the actual health care providers.

I would love to see a bullet point break down of the bill if anyone has that info, there just seems to a lack of actual information out there.

ItsTheDude · Mar 22, 2010

I heard it will make our country's nursing shortage even worse.

there hasn't been a national nursing shortage for a while now. like so many what if's about the bill, many of the what if's are based on falsehoods whether the bill passed or not.

airborneinf82, BSN · Mar 22, 2010

Well, as most know, the nursing shortage is going to get worse as the baby boomers begin retiring. Add to that 32 million more people to the health care roles, and you can sure bet there will be a shortage or nurses, doctors, PAs, LNP, CNRAs, etc etc.

As most have said, it will take time to fully feel the effects of this bill. I am personally against it and hope things can be turned back. Either way, some things will go in to effect right away, such as no pre-existings, tax increases, medicare cuts, while other things, such as major changes will not take effect for 3 years. Either way, we will begin feeling it soon and seeing the effects, in some way, soon.

steelcityrn, RN · Mar 22, 2010

My hope is that in the end, there are no more straight medicare and medicaid plans, the latter has been a complete failure. There is no accountability for the money spent, no mandatory ways to prevent fraud, over use of visits and DME', no drug testing ect.... No one is going to tell me as a homecare nurse who has seen the abuse of the system. I want to see eveyone in a healthcare plan. Anyone who has dealt with B.C. knows they monitor all visits and they make sure the money is spent for the right reasons. I even want to see the VA in a healthcare plan. If anyone wants to see their social security payments one day, this need to be done.

CFitzRN, ADN · Mar 22, 2010

There is a ton of mismanagement, fraud and waste in both Medicaid and Medicare. I guess the answer is to force an infinitely more HUGE government-run health care system down the peoples' throats. That should go really well.

VMSR · Mar 22, 2010

President Obama has not signed bill yet, so we should keep all the disclaimers in mind, but I believe this will mean more jobs in healthcare in general, and consequently, more nursing jobs. Under this bill, over 30 million more people will be brought into healthcare system, so that alone would have to mean more jobs for healthcare providers. I'm actually looking forward to reading more about this bill, and talking about it with people here.

CdaleJekyll · Mar 22, 2010

There is a ton of mismanagement, fraud and waste in both Medicaid and Medicare. I guess the answer is to force an infinitely more HUGE government-run health care system down the peoples' throats. That should go really well.

There is no public option in the bill that was just signed. What are you talking about?

MtngerlRN · Mar 22, 2010

The system either way doesn't work properly. I don't agree with the government's increase of programs and spending. And no matter who has been in office they have built more and more programs and increased the size of the government. I'm not saying I have an answer for health reform. I just don't have a good feeling when the government gets involved with programs they have no idea how to run. This bill directly affects my grandmother who will not be able to afford her bills now. There's more but I'll stop there. :)

Uligonzalez · Mar 22, 2010

i am american; i have worked in health care within the insurance companies (both humana and united) as case manager. for the last 7 years i have been residing in canada, where everyone has health insurance. i tell you something, besides the same shortage of nurses that we have in the us now the health care system is the one of the best if not the best in the world. here you wait to see an specialist the same time you have to wait in the us, nurses are treated with the same respect and are paid the same and sometimes better because a med surgical nurse in florida for example (rn) starts making at any columbia or tenet hospital $20 hour. here if you are an rn you start at $33.00 right out of school and an rn with 10 to 15 years experience is making anywhere from $43 to $45 hours.

now that everyone , or at least it looks like everyone is going to have health insurance, the hospitals will get paid for their services and maybe if the nursing associations, unions and government do something about it, rn, lpn's and other health care staff will get better paid from the hospitals, but that is a different story.

i have seen a lot of abuse by insurance companies denying coverage for pre existing and or exceeding coverage limit. it have to stop.

it was time for someone to do something about the health care because there are too many dr's pocketing money from medicare and medicaid.

will what happens in the future? no one really knows.

KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 22, 2010

Just my humble 2 cents...

1). almost guaranteed - a HUGE gain (in authonomy and maybe also in salaries) for mid-levels (NP/PA), especially ones in primary care. Even if only 5-10% GP doctors leave practice for good it creates a sort of vacuum, especially considering those 33 or so millions of currently uninsured who are going to enjoy their new policies rather soon. Mid-levels can fill it within 2-3 years, and it is just not possible to prepare enough primary care doctors less than over 5-6 years under current regulations.

2). potentially opening of two large new job markets: one in goverment-managed jobs (someone will have to do all that multitude of new paperwork which is coming upon), another one in a new sector of "public prophylaxis" or "public medical education" , similar with what now called Master of Public Health. Both can be very lucrative for experienced nurses.

3). at the same time - as specialists' compensations will decrease, same happens with salaries of, for example, CRNAs and those working in the specialties which were booming just before recession, like pain medicine.

4). More patients are coming. Everybody knows about baby-boomers, but there're some more. Almost the whole generation of folks who are now in their late 30-early 40th now postpone their medical care needs b/o recession, lack of job or insurance, etc. In 5 - 15 years - when they will be in their 50-early 60th - their current obesity, cravings for comfort food, smoking and untreated hypertension start play tricks with their hearts, lungs and so forth. That will be quite additional load to baby-boomers (still only in their middle 70th and needing A LOT of care).

5). expansion of office/home care/rehab medicine and contraction of hospital-based sector (b/o cost-control and hopefully:redbeathe we Americans will gradually become healthier as more people will get access to health support services when they really need it).