Lies, Damned Lies and a Health Insurance Industry Report Condemning Reform
With the prospect of Congress passing health care reform legislation becoming more likely each day, the nation’s health insurance industry has launched a new scare campaign to torpedo reform. Ironically, in doing so, Big Health Insurers also have shown why a public health insurance plan option is vital to real health care reform.
The insurance industry trade lobby, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) just released a report that claims the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health care reform legislation would raise average family premiums to $21,300. The report makes clear that the insurance industry will not lower health care costs on its own. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), called the report
an outrageous threat by one of the richest industries in America….Our legislators should respond to this bullying and stop coddling a useless industry whose sole function is to make enormous profits from the pain and suffering of patients while providing little in return.
Nurses Report Serious Flaws in Swine Flu Handling at Health Care Facilities
 |
|
As we approach flu season, a survey of 190 health care facilities in nine states finds a
“disturbing number of our nation’s healthcare facilities are not prepared for the coming H1N1/swine flu pandemic.”
The survey, by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), was conducted in late July and August and found wide gaps in safety gear, infection control training and post-exposure procedures.
- At more than one-fourth of the hospitals, nurses cite inadequate isolation of swine flu patients, increasing the risk of infection to others.
- Nurses at 15 percent of hospitals do not have access to the proper respirator masks, exposing nurses and patients to infection. At up to 40 percent of the hospitals, nurses are expected to re-use masks, in violation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
- At 18 percent of the hospitals, RNs report that nurses have become infected—one nurse in Sacramento, Calif., has died.
Health Care Workers at Risk as Swine Flu Spreads
 |
|
Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the threat of widespread human infection from the outbreak of swine flu to its second-highest level. The outbreak of swine flu originated in Mexico and is now spreading throughout the United States and around the globe.
But as an April 16 report released by the AFL-CIO and several unions, including the United American Nurses (UAN), warned, the nation’s health care workers—the first line of defense against the diseases—are at risk because many the nation’s health care facilities are not prepared to deal with a pandemic. The report, which surveyed 104 health care facilities in 14 states, found that while health care facilities have made some progress in preparing for an influenza pandemic, much more needs to be done. The survey found:
- More than one-third of the respondents believe their workplace is either not ready or only slightly ready to address the health and safety needs necessary to protect health care workers during a pandemic.
- 43 percent of respondents believe that most or some of their fellow workers will stay home.
