Nurses and the 2008 election

[Brian]

A recent study led by Vanderbilt University professor Peter Buerhaus polled registered nurses about two timely issues -- the state of health care and the importance of the issue in the upcoming election.

With a close election expected, the country's three million registered nurses could make a difference in the election, Buerhaus says.

Most nurses interviewed support some form of universal health care coverage, although opinions vary on just how extensive coverage should be.

Very few approve of the country's health care system as it stands now, the survey shows.

...Slightly more than half, or 51 percent, believe that if all nurses could join together to address one health problem, it would be the number of uninsured Americans.

Full Story: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/08/18/daily13.html

[Iam46yearsold]

so the question must be.......how do we fiscally and morally bankrupt the usa???

ask gw bush, he has managed to do this already. it is the one thing he has excelled at.

[BlueRidgeHomeRN]

ask gw bush, he has managed to do this already. it is the one thing he has excelled at.

opinions are like elbows..everyone has one or two!!

..but let's save them for the election threads,

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

...perhaps the most immediate impact of the liberal quest to be heard came in the drafting of the democratic party platform to be adopted by the convention this week. the experience of donna smith is illustrative.

ms. smith, a health-policy activist with the national nurses organizing committee and self-described "middle-aged grandma from chicago," is pushing for a so-called single-payer national health-insurance system, in which the government essentially would expand the medicare program to cover all americans. she and some fellow activists hoped to appear at a platform hearing in cleveland several weeks ago to make their pitch, but they didn't get on the agenda.

their goal wasn't to get the party to sign on to national health insurance, which they realized was a bridge too far, but rather to get the platform language call explicitly for "guaranteed health care" for all americans, without specifics about how that would be achieved.

so ms. smith and colleagues from other progressive groups organized a kind of guerrilla campaign for the official platform-writing session that followed, in chicago. they recruited a sympathetic platform delegate to carry their amendment, pulled liberal rep. john conyers of michigan into action, and they ultimately got their language added to the platform.

ms. smith was pleased, but she recognizes that as only one step toward national health care. "we don't think it's anywhere near where it should be in terms of what the platform should say or what our party should stand for," she says.

michael yaki, the democratic party's national platform director, says the debate over health-care language "was a semantic issue. the progressive forces "pointed out that it was important. ... if that wasn't made as clear as it should have been, then they pointed out something good."...

http://online.wsj.com/article/sb121969145343270091.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

[BradleyRN]

opinions are like elbows..everyone has one or two!!

72% of this country disapprove of bush. better late than never!

the other 28% must be either locked into the fox news channel, unable to read, or on an 8 year safari in africa.

[BlueRidgeHomeRN]

72% of this country disapprove of bush. better late than never!

the other 28% must be either locked into the fox news channel, unable to read, or on an 8 year safari in africa.

yes, i've already conceded that all non-liberals are evil or stupid...because its easier than addressing facts, which seem to be so confusing to some of ya'll!

[skyes]

:

herring_ rn: thank you for your intense words!!

thank you for reporting your experience.

you have impassioned me.

do you all know the italian politic about healthcare?

we do not backrupt healthcare, we have learned to share health duty, in order to enable all person to be cured.

this is how a chinese proverb:

"if you would eat with very long sticks (canes): you can't.

you could only feed (spoon-feed) another person, and he can feed you.

so, feeding each other is the solution to eat."

this is the italian politic about health care.

what do you think about it??

:

[Iam46yearsold]

While I have made several journeys to Italy

I have never availed of its health care sources.

However everyone looked happy and well cared for.

A personal, if unscientific observation.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

:

herring_ rn: thank you for your intense words!!

thank you for reporting your experience.

you have impassioned me.

do you all know the italian politic about healthcare?

we do not backrupt healthcare, we have learned to share health duty, in order to enable all person to be cured.

this is how a chinese proverb:

"if you would eat with very long sticks (canes): you can't.

you could only feed (spoon-feed) another person, and he can feed you.

so, feeding each other is the solution to eat."

this is the italian politic about health care.

what do you think about it??

:

i think that is an excellent politic regarding healthcare.

i admit to being ignorant about any details about healthcare in italy.

maybe you will want to post on the social advocacy site?

https://allnurses.com/forums/f287/

i know as a nurse it hurts me to have patients come to the hospital so very sick because they hoped and prayed they would get better. so instead of preventative care they get emergency care. their suffering is terrible for a nurse like me to witness.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Ragarding nurses actions successful in adding language to the party platform at the Democratic National Convention 2008

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and Progressive Democrats of America held a reception at the Democratic Convention in honor of the 92 members of the Congressional HR 676 Caucus.

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2008/august/healthcare-reformers-hold-reception-for-congressional-hr-676-caucus-at-democratic-national-convention-tues-aug-26-1.html?print=t

Nurses with Congressman John Conyers:

http://www.calnurses.org/photo-albums/democratic-national-convention-2008/democratic-national.html?print=t

[CHATSDALE]

:

herring_ rn: thank you for your intense words!!

thank you for reporting your experience.

you have impassioned me.

do you all know the italian politic about healthcare?

we do not backrupt healthcare, we have learned to share health duty, in order to enable all person to be cured.

this is how a chinese proverb:

"if you would eat with very long sticks (canes): you can't.

you could only feed (spoon-feed) another person, and he can feed you.

so, feeding each other is the solution to eat."

this is the italian politic about health care.

what do you think about it??

:

do you have income tax in italy...how much of income tax [%] do you pay??

[lamazeteacher]

Brian:

It would be good for you to glimpse the "Michael Moore......" thread!

You'll see that the posts are not in line with the poll (and I did get carried away).

[lamazeteacher]

We already are paying for it, and OBTW, I LIVE in the real world and deal with real people who are forced to choose between eating and filling their blood pressure medicine, who are living paycheck to paycheck and one little illness sends them over the edge...I've been there and empathize

I am there too, on Medicare (don't get me started about "D")- with one med that I must take to survive that costs me $100/week! Another costs $250/month (not from the same manufacturer); I try to get samples from doctors (who proudly say they don't let pharmaceutical reps inside their doors) and I succeed some of the time, but feel like a beggar when I'm not furious and thinking that I should go back to Canada.

At the risk of sounding/looking like a campaigner for Obama, let me tell you how thrilled I was to hear him say that we are our brother and sisters' keepers. And when Michael Moore said on the Oprah show that he'd be willing (and proud) to wait for his own non emergency surgery so the 50,000,000 uninsured people in our country could receive medical care, I cheered.

Tax paying Canadians can't figure out why Americans don't think their taxes should pay for their fellow citizens' medical care, but insurance companies' executives deserve the millions of dollars/year they receive. Canada is a democratic, capitalist country! :chuckle