DEAR EDITOR:
We nurses celebrated National Nurses Week last week.
Nursing organizations have long supported a national health care system that assures access and quality services at affordable costs. Nursing groups have worked for 20 years to provide a framework for a health care system to mimic the systems in other developed countries. More recently, nurses worked with this adminstration and members of Congress in crafting the Affordable Care Act.
The reasons? Insurance companies can no longer deny access for pre-existing conditions, young adults can have coverage on their family plans. The insurance companies can no longer drop coverage when people get sick.
In addition, more than two dozen preventive services are provided with no out-of-pocket payments. Under the ACA, insurance companies must spend 80 percent of premium dollars on actual health services.
There also would be funding for nursing education and faculty to educate more nurses.
Consistent with the code of ethics for nurses, our profession has a long history of advocating for our patients and that makes this nurse proud.
Judith Waid
Warren