WASHINGTON, D.C. (RPRN) 7/16/2009–This afternoon the President was joined by members of the American Nurses Association in the Rose Garden, where he spoke strongly on the urgent need for health care reform.  He explained that the status quo is not an option, and that deferring reform is akin to defending that status quo.
Both proposals will take what’s best about our system today and make it the basis for our system tomorrow — reducing costs, raising quality, and ensuring fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry. Both include a health insurance exchange, a marketplace that will allow families and small businesses to compare prices, services, and the quality, so they can choose the plan that best suits their needs. And among the choices available would be a public health insurance option that would make health care more affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices, and keeping insurance companies honest. Both proposals will offer stability and security to Americans who have coverage today, and affordable options to those who don’t.
America’s nurses need us to succeed, not just on behalf of the patients that they sometimes speak for. If we invest in prevention, nurses won’t have to treat diseases or complications that could have been avoided. If we modernize health records, we’ll streamline the paperwork that can take up more than one-third of the average nurse’s day, freeing them to spend more time with their patients.  If we make their jobs a little bit easier, we can attract and train the young nurses we need to make up a nursing shortage that’s only getting worse. Nurses do their part every time they check another healthy patient out of the hospital. It’s now time for us to do our part.
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Source: The White House Briefing Room