will universal healthcare ( in the usa) cut RN pay?

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I been hearing this debate off and on for a long time about how if Obama gets universal healthcare to go ( if he gets elected of course)though in the US that nursing pay will be cut dramatically. I would think this has to do with the fact that we would all be working for the government and that there will no longer be competition. There are many people in my nursing class that said they will leave nursing if thats the case. I also talked to several doctors that said the same thing about medicine in general. Im just curious if anyone has some good info about this. Thanks

I am a Junior nursing student and was just wondering with all these issues coming up about healthcare reform, do we face a pay cut? I mean I do enjoy what I am learning and believe I have found my calling in life. But reading many threads on different sites I believe that we work too hard through school and by what we do to be reduced in pay. If I am reading and hearing correctly, the new reform will change medicare, government run insurance programs will be more abundant, and physicians and hospitals will be taking pay cuts. I am just assuming we are part of that pay cut. Can anyone make me feel better about this career choice?:scrying::banghead:

any feedback will be appreciated!

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I hope to hell we don't have to take a pay cut.

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Specializes in Acute post op ortho.

If the government runs health care like they rum the department of motor vehicles, we can expect to wait forever for care, be treated like cattle & hell, if you think health care is expensive now......

just wait til it's FREE.

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Honestly my views on the healthcare reform make me sound so horrible, but I have yet to see a surefire plan that will insure everyone and not cost us money and grief.....I mean I work at a non for profit hospital now in the city of Chicago and I see it all.....and my partner works for a optometrist whose business is 95% medicaid and medicare patients and I hear too often how long they have to wait for payments now....and sometimes they get letters in the mail that say they will not get paid till further notice.....what kinda crap is that.....????? and we have had a couple of hospitals in the chicagoland area that have had to close due to non payment from government programs......I just dont' understand how universal care is supposed to work when we can't get a small percentage of coverage for these programs paid!

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Specializes in Cardiac.
If the government runs health care like they rum the department of motor vehicles, we can expect to wait forever for care, be treated like cattle & hell, if you think health care is expensive now......

just wait til it's FREE.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Many, many people seem to be misinformed about the President's proposed health care plan (there are resources available that will help clear up this confusion). There will still be private insurance. If you like your current plan, you can keep it.

Here's a website that the President just released this week to address all of the misinformation and fear mongering being stirred up by opponents of his plan.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

Let's all challenge ourselves to become informed about this important issue.

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If anything passes, it will be more health insurance reform than healthcare reform.

Health insurance companies might be told they can't just drop clients anymore when they get sick. And everyone will be expected to maintain health insurance. Anything more than that seems very unlikely.

So, no. It won't lower salaries. If anything, Nurses (and especially Nurse Practicioners) will find themselves incredibly in demand.

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Specializes in Cardiac.
I am a Junior nursing student and was just wondering with all these issues coming up about healthcare reform, do we face a pay cut? I mean I do enjoy what I am learning and believe I have found my calling in life. But reading many threads on different sites I believe that we work too hard through school and by what we do to be reduced in pay. If I am reading and hearing correctly, the new reform will change medicare, government run insurance programs will be more abundant, and physicians and hospitals will be taking pay cuts. I am just assuming we are part of that pay cut. Can anyone make me feel better about this career choice?:scrying::banghead:

any feedback will be appreciated!

Please refer to the site listed below if you have questions about the proposed health care plan. The best way to clear up misinformation is to go straight to the source.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

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Healthcare reform in America will create more jobs. At present, it's really hard for new grads to get jobs as so many Americans are not insured, and that means less hospital business. The only tax increases will be for all the executives out there making an absurd amounts of money. Healthcare should be a human right, not a privalage!

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

if we don't get pay cuts are paychecks will still be much smaller since the government will be taxing us through the nose so that we can all have crappy health insurance. i sure hope it does not go through. yes it is sad that so many people do not have health insurance, but a large majority of people choose not to have health insurance; if they budgeted they could afford to have it or they flat out just don't pay for it, but these people are all figured into the statistics. i worked my butt off to get through nursing school and now continue to work my butt off as a nurse and feel i have every right to the quality health insurance i have earned. like my mom said yesterday, "well, you wont have to worry about having to make the decision about 'pulling the plug' when daddy and i get older, the government will make that call for you". its just like the quote i use about abortion and taxes, ...just like i am not a huge fan of abortion--but am a fan of women's rights, and like i am a fan of taxes but not the fact that i can not say what pot my money is being wasted in...i have one more to add "i want the government out of my pockets, out of my pants, and out of my health care"

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Tele, DOU.

Even without universal healthcare, the paycuts have already started. I noticed 10% reduction in some places.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

There are some days when even at double pay, its not enough. I'm talking a 12 hr shift where I get no break for lunch or even to pee but maybe once a shift. Start with 4 or 5 pts, discharge/admit all day, the bed never gets cold before I have another slip, drug seeker getting morphine/dilaudid q hr, FSBS on all pts, missing meds, multiple piggy backs, dopamine, cardizem, or heparin gtt, chest tubes, drsg changes, bed alarms/restraints, isolation for MRSA, H1N1 or C-diff, pt pulls out IV/Foley/NG. Family with multiple requests are the worst "when is the Dr coming? What time is my fathers test? When do we get to go home? Can you change the sheets, bring another blanket/pillow/socks, Can I have some more water/coffee,ice? I didn't get anything to drink with my meal... I love my job and for the amount of work I (and everyone else) does, a pay cut would be like a slap in the face.

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