Letter to the Editor
Nurses for Obama
Published Friday, October 10, 2008
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To the editor:
Isn’t it great that both vice-presidential candidates, during the recent debate, promised to effect change in Washington if elected? As voters, we all know change is needed. As voters, we need to choose change carefully.
During the debate, Gov. Palin quoted Reagan regarding freedom. Does anyone remember this? Her words were taken from “Operation Coffeecup,” a 1950s and ’60s campaign orchestrated to block passage of Medicare: Doctors’ wives invited folks for a cup of joe, played Reagan’s record and parroted claims that Medicare would end in totalitarianism. As Paul Krugman of the New York Times pointed out on Monday, “Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare. … The McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking.”
Enough said.
After thoughtful study, the American Nurses Association, representing America’s almost 3 million registered nurses, has chosen who it thinks will truly deliver change. American nurses have voted to endorse Barack Obama for president of the United States, believing he is the best candidate to bring real and much-needed change to our health care system.
I have been a nurse since 1978 and hold the ANA’s endorsement in high regard. It is my hope others will take this information into consideration when casting their historic vote Nov. 4.
Community Discussion
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Obama has a MUCH better plan for health care than McCain does. Obama's plan will help keep you well...McCain's will help keep you poor (and the insurance companies rich).
Yep, look at how well medicare works
Good luck getting an appointment if you already are not established with a physician. Every year more and more local physicians opt not to accept medicare patients, and with the reimbusment rates who can blame them.
But Im sure Obama can fix this :\
Why is the endorsement of the Democrats a surprise to anyone....
From what I can tell they have endorsed Clinton, Gore, Kerry and now Barry.
Did anyone expect anything different! Most of the Nurses I know are very pro-life (Mom, Sis, Cousin, Niece, a couple friends)
How in the Hell can a pro-life nurse support Barry??? Typical union....stopped representing its members long ago
akguy: "...stopped representing its members long ago"
Perhaps you missed the part where Ms. Patrick said that "American nurses have VOTED to endorse Barack Obama" (emphasis mine). I assume (though I'm happy to be shown wrong) that it was not just a handful of top administrators who voted on this, and that the American Nurses Association has some sort of system in place by which their membership has the opportunity to vote on political endorsements.
"How in the Hell can a pro-life nurse support Barry?"
I suspect it's easy, if you're not a single-issue voter. The nursing profession seems to have an ethic of *care* that many other professions (including some medical professions) lack in the same degree. I suspect the question they asked (internally) was, "Which candidate advocates a kind of health-care reform that will make sure more people are actually cared for?"
Mr. Adasiak, you are exactly right on the ANA's reasoning. I too am a nurse who is supporting Obama. The health care industry is our country is broken. For instance, my son-in-law is a diabetic. He works in a factory to support their 3 kids, making all of $12/hr. His employer's health plan will not cover his diabetic supplies and medication because it is a pre-existing condition. So he goes w/o them because they cannot afford it. He 'makes too much' to qualify for reduced or free care through Medicaid and/or the pharmaceutical companies.
How would McCain's $5,000 tax credit to buy private insurance help him? Simply, it won't. #1) They don't have the $5,000 up front to purchase it. #2) Once again, a private health insurance company will generally not cover pre-existing conditions unless the premiums are considerably more than $5,000/yr. #3) Like auto insurance, if you use it, your rates go up. I had a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2003. Fortunately, although I was in nursing school at the time, I had COBRA health insurance through my previous employer. My out-of-pocket expense for this $200,000+ adventure was $100. After my COBRA expired, I tried to buy private insurance. I could not find anyone who would even touch me for any price. Happily, my new employer covers me. But I will tell you that it was a very scary year and a half till I finished school and got a job that provided insurance.
Obama's plan will work. I urge you to go to his website and read it for yourself.
Here Is YOUR Change !
George Bush has been in office for 7-1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.
A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2-1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +
5) American's were buying new cars,taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!...
But American's wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right. In the PAST YEAR:
1) Consumer confidence has plummeted ;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION
DOLLARS and prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low~~
$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT
PORTFOLIOS!
YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE...AND WE SURE GOT IT! ....
REMEMBER THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS.
AND WHAT HAS CONGRESS DONE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
NOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT CLAIMS HE IS GOING TO REALLY GIVE US CHANGE ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!!
JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?
Mr A -
Go to their website and look - it was a handful of people who made this decision for the whole union...
4 people recommend it to the Board of Directors...the Board then decides! - - the membership did not VOTE (my emphasis added)
The Letter to the Editor is misleading and wrong in that regard - - look it up!
http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategori...
That's the great thing about the internet - - you can verify people's facts...or just follow them blindly...
Your choice, Mr A
Right On glockmod23,
Glad someone else is awake, and see what is really happening to the country.
AKguy, I like the Internets too... ;) I read the link you posted, thanks. I chose a quote from it which states that part of their decision process includes "Polling individual Constituent Member Associations (CMA) and ANA membership for their preferred candidates"
Sounds like they act much as our electoral college does. Everyone votes, but then the committee makes the ultimate decision on who to endorse. I'd like to know who, other than Gore-Lieberman, they have endorsed in the past. So far, have been unable to find that info.
Glockmod23, THANK YOU!
Vote Republican, At least poor people like us will have richer scraps, adequate leftovers.
Susie -
they have endorsed Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton
Do a search by election year and ana presidential endorsement...
It is just another arm of the Democratic Party
Might I suggest that nurses talk to their colleagues working for the VA, before endorsing a government ran health care system. I'm not at all well versed in what nurses make in the private sector. I do know what a GS-8 makes.
Who in their right mind believes health care reform is even on the table any more with todays economy. The next four years will be spent on trying to bring America back to normal, new spending programs have gone done the drain with the world wide recession.
Glockmod23, you hit the nail right on the head. All was well, that's why GW got re-elected, put a bunch of spenders in the congress and it only took em 2 years to destroy it.
As far as the nurse endorsement goes, well my wife is a member of that there nures association and her vote will not be wasted on obama, she will vote for the next president of the United States, John S. McCain! So she can make it look like all those votes are going obamas way, but much like Katie's dinner in Delaware, not all she said is the truth.
Wow......this is a total partisan-only site. My guy's better than your's....no he's not.....what a bunch of juveniles PREDICTING the future. Very pathetic.
Twist it all you want, spin around the facts all you can. I've been keeping my eyes WIDE open since the days that Nixon proved that it's our responsibility to QUESTION AUTHORITY. What a waste that guy was!!
I say give a NON-REPUBLICAN a shot at making some changes. The Republicans can stand behind their record all they want.....the facts speak volumes about their ineptness. Stop the fear mongering about 'socialized' this or that....'communist' this or that. The VILLAGEIDIOT guy wants you to think that your right to bear arms is at risk. He can't be serious. People will ALWAYS have guns....no official will prevent that, ever, I betcha.
Also, make sure that your public officials are equipped with more brain power than it takes to get a degree in Journalism.....jeesh, how absurd. That sets higher-education efforts back hundreds of years.
And lastly, VOTE SMART....VOTE NON-REPUBLICAN !!!
The stage for our economic problems has been in the making for well over two years. Look a little further back and you will see that the Republicans held the majority in Congress from 1994 through 2006. Bush has been President for the last 7-1/2 years. How convenient that everyone wants to blame the Democrats for all of our economic woes. It's Bush's and the Republicans "trickle-down economics" and other policies that favor the rich and elite that have gotten us into this mess. The economy was on a collision course with disaster well before two years ago. Look at the big picture! I guess the Democrats in Congress were supposed to fix in two years the mess that was in the making for many years.
If health care is the issue that you are most concerned about, then vote that way. Just remember the promises of Bill Clinton on health care. 12 years later and we are not much better off in that area. If you think national security, national defense and change in Washington politics are important vote republican.
The economy runs in roughly 5 year cycles. Which means that we as a country were headed this way approximately 3 years before the Democrats started controlling Congress. It is foolish to blame everyhting on one group of people. Both political parties had a hand in this mess that we are in. And you can't give Bush a pass on this because Congress can write whatever they want, Bush was the one argeeing with it and signing it. Basically everyone that has been in a federal posotion of power over the last 15 years or so has allowed this to happen.
Listen to Obamas new ads on health care, it is now we will go after the insurance companies. He has done a 360 and no one noticed his change from universal health care to reforming insurance companies. In other words, no health care changes.
Teachers for Obama too!
If Bush can get credit for 9-11 after 7 months on the job than Pelosi and company can take the hit for the current world wide lack of confidence in the US economy. Bush took us to war to stabilise an unstable region. Congress declared war on our economy, through taxes and regulations.
Bush took us to war to stabilize the region? That's news to me! I thought we went to war to "root out terrorism". Or was it to "spread democracy". No wait, now it's to stabilize the region. Do you really think that the region will remain stable once we leave if that ever happens? Keep drinking the Kool-Aid!
Thumbsucker, you start with a partisan rant, and then you go off on your own little left wing crapola. You say give a man with connections to some of the most American haters in the country a shot. Wow, glad you added your opinion, now everything is much clearer. I am now headed to Katies dinner which just happens to be on obamas block, which he had no idea it was there.
So now we go from teacher bashing to nurse bashing, two of the most important professions in a healthy society. What's wrong with you people?! Teachers want to be paid a decent wage for building the minds and bodies of our nation's citizens, and nurses want to elect a president who has a plan to help their profession care for patients better, and all you can do is spout insulting party platitudes. Sounds like you've been brain-washed by so much corporate hate-talk radio and Faux News, that you can't even remember what these professions mean to a healthy society.
Ms. Patrick has been a nurse for 30 years. I think she probably has a pretty good feel for what nurses think, and maybe a good idea of how the ANA has represented nurses for the last three decades. I went to their website and saw what kinds of hideous things these terrible people were trying to do politically. After the Obama announcement, the number one thing on the list was their campaign to legislate "safe staffing," to make sure people are properly cared for when they're sick or injured. How sick is that? :-) Because the medical profession has evolved into a massive corporate industry, saving a dollar has become more important than saving a patient. Nurses have had to bear a considerable brunt of the switch from patient first to money first, having to do more nursing tasks in less time to the point where patient care is threatened. They're there. They know. And they care. And for the vast majority of the nursing profession, caring for people isn't just their job, it's their nature.
Nurses, of all people, know that health care should be about more than money, especially in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Maybe one good reason the nurses and the ANA want a Democratic president in the White House is because the Republican president vetoed a bill last year (that a Democratic Congress passed), that would have insured millions of poor children in America for five years for $35 billion, as he sends eleven billion dollars a MONTH out the war hole, as well as another $612 billion for war just last month. Then, last week, the Republican president insisted Congress rush to give the Secretary of Treasury (former CEO of collapsing corporation), $700 billion to bail out the wealthiest Americans in the nation, after they've already made billions on the deregulation the Republican Congress (with wealthy Dems) has passed in the last 20 years.
Now let's review - I tried to figure out the numbers on my calculator but it doesn't go to a trillion, so suffice it to say that Republicans will spend trillions of dollars of our money on war and CEO bail-outs, but won't spend seven billion dollars a year on health-care for poor children. I'm not a nurse, but I sure can figure out why the literal heart of the health care profession is supporting a Democratic candidate who appears to be ready, willing, and able to put health care above wealth care and war care.
Doris, mrs patrick has no idea what 3 million other nurses think, but her article implies they all will be voting for obama, not true, not even close. She is doing the old mis-speak which she is using her opinion and implying their are 3 million others who think just like her. And as I said earlier, my wife is part of that association and many of her fellow nurses do not feel the way the article implies, no nurse bashing, just facts.
Either way SOMEONE/SOME GROUP has really messed us UP!! I don't think a greenhorn president can change that...........I will still vote McPalin 08