subject: The American Nurses Association Position On Healthcare Reform [print this page] The American Nurses Association (ANA) strongly supports healthcare reform, noting that the number of people who are uninsured has continued to expand, that costs continue to rise, and that more and more the quality of healthcare is being scrutinized. The problems of the healthcare system have become so overwhelming that healthcare providers, policy makers and the public need to make sweeping changes to the system now.
A Harvard survey has discovered that more than 60 percent of all bankruptcies were caused by healthcare costs, and that 78 percent of the people who filed bankruptcy over healthcare had insurance.
The ANA believes that the healthcare system needs to focus on primary care, prevention and chronic disease management, all of which will reduce the amount of expensive acute care currently given. The emphasis of the healthcare reform initiative matches the healthcare goals of the nursing profession -- providing care for the whole person that not only considers the individual, but his or her family and the community.
The ANA also supports the healthcare reform legislation because it recognizes the need for access to care and quality of care. The reform package focuses on wellness and prevention, developing the nursing profession, and recognizes the importance of advance practice nurses. The reform legislation also emphasizes the integration and collaboration of healthcare providers.
The position of the ANA is that healthcare is a basic human right, and believes that the country needs to provide a basic level of healthcare to its people. The healthcare system in the United States fails to do this. The United States is the only industrialized Western country that does not give this guarantee. It also does not fully utilize the skills of nurses to provide care in a range of settings.
A number of provisions of the healthcare reform legislation have just gone into effect. Insurers now are required to:
Keep you covered when you get sick. Simple mistakes or typos will no longer be grounds for insurance companies to cancel your insurance.
Cover children with pre-existing conditions.
Allow young adults to stay on their parents' plan up to age 26.
Remove lifetime [coverage] limits.
Phase out annual [coverage] limits.
For any insurance plan that goes into effect after September 23, 2010, your insurance company must:
Pay for preventive care like mammograms and immunizations.
Give you a better appeals process for insurance claims.
Let you choose your own doctor, choose any available participating primary care provider as your provider, and any available participating pediatrician to be your child's primary care provider.
Provide easier access to OB-GYN services.
Allow you to use the nearest emergency room without penalty. If an emergency arises while you're away, you will no longer have to drive home to your in-network provider to receive in-network benefits.
