http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060131/sftu187.html?.v=1WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizations representing over 100,000 registered nurses from California to Maine today sharply criticized the health care plan expected to be unveiled by President Bush in his State of the Union speech tonight, warning they would only accelerate the nation's health care crisis.
The centerpiece of the anticipated administration plan is expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and tax breaks for consumer spending on medical care, "two schemes that will do nothing to increase access to health coverage, improve quality, or control costs," said the American Association of Registered Nurses in a statement today.
The conservative ideology behind HSAs is to force patients to spend more out of their pockets for health services and push more consumers into buying medical coverage from private insurers. Neither idea will work, said AARN leaders.
"Instead of punishing those who most need care, we ought to be providing real solutions, such as adopting a single payer, universal healthcare system, as embodied in HR 676 (introduced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan)," said MNA President Beth Piknick, RN. AARN members endorsed HR 676 at a meeting last weekend.
The major sources of rising costs are the profiteering by drug companies, HMOs, hospital chains, and other segments of the healthcare industry and huge administrative overhead, all of which are rewarded by the Bush plan which blames patients and consumers, not the corporate medical industry for the health care crisis.
"It was just such flawed thinking that created the current Medicare prescription fiasco by forcing people to go into private insurance plans for drug benefits and failing to limit drug company prices," said PASNAP President Patty Eakin, RN.
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