Healthcare Worker Guest Author

Hey my name is Loren. I am a 20-year-old healthcare worker and a former nursing student. For the past two years I have been a certified nursing assistant at Community Memorial Hospital (Winona Health) in Winona, MN.

Like one of the previous guest writers, I also was unaware that, as a whole, healthcare has a low number of incoming providers. I am however aware of the shortage of nurses. This was the main reason I chose nursing as my major. I was continually hearing on the news that there is a nursing shortage, after one semester in the Winona State Nursing Program, I understand why. The amount of stress and coursework demanded of nursing students is ridiculous. For example Anatomy and Physiology is the most stressful class imaginable. I personally failed it three times. Not due to lack of effort, but due to the endless little details we had to memorize. I still do not understand why as a nurse I would need to know the name every bone or every chemical reaction in the body. That class alone caused half of the freshman nursing students to change their majors. I feel like more would have stuck around had the class been more directed at nursing student, but the problem is that the class was for Pre-Med, Sports/Physical Therapy, and Nursing student. As a general studies course it will not be specialized for nursing students. Personally I would like to see all general studies courses removed from our college programs all together. College boards are more worried about having “well rounded” American Citizens then in having those citizens specialists in their careers. Here is where I would normally go off on how education in general needs to be revised, but as that is not the point of this blog, I will refrain myself.

Next I would like to discus my views on Universal Healthcare. I am 100% for it! There is no reason for ANY American Citizen to be refused care because they are uninsured. And if they are not refused, they get slammed with ridiculously high healthcare bills. At the hospital we have patients that we call “frequent fliers”. Some of them actually come in because they need care, but a lot of them come in simply because they are lonely. And doctors continue to admit them! These patients all have Medicare, and can stay for up to ten days paying very little out of pocket. This really bothers me for two reasons. The first, I have to deal with them, and they are often very crabby or meticulous. Secondly, I have been lucky enough to find a job that pays well and offers benefits, such as health insurance. However so many people in this country a unemployed at the moment, and unable to get health insurance. Why should one of these people be bombarded to healthcare bills, when Medicare is pouring money into entertaining these elderly?

If this country decides that Universal Healthcare is to socialistic (sarcasm much intended), I firmly believe we need to have a new law that gives healthcare to anyone enrolled in a college or university. These people are already dishing thousands of dollars into their education; they cannot afford to be uninsured. So many students work while in college, but most can’t work full time in a job that gives them health insurance. An uninsured student, who is most likely already in debt due to student loans, would be even more in debt with a trip to the emergency room. I know that this concept may be confusing to many students who may be reading this because they are insured under their parents’ plans, but not all of us have that comfort. I have two people in mind when I say that. One of my close friends is uninsured because her father lost his job, thus losing all coverage for is family. Another friend of mine is not on speaking terms with his family, and they refuse to keep him on their plan.

Thank you for allowing me to speak my mind. I DEMAND change, and I pray that Obama’s Healthcare reform passes.

Health Care Worker Guest Author

I have been a health care worker for the last 14 years at a major medical center. In the last few years it has been harder and harder to fill job vacancies. With this in mind changes must be made to attract students into the field. Education in allied health careers at a younger age and training incentives are all good ideas. Getting people excited about the field at an early age is key. If we don't attract young people to these careers it affects our access and quality of health care. This is an important field and being involved in it should be more attractive to students. Being short staffed also affects my coworkers and I at our job. Responsibilities and duties are piled on to a smaller amount of people, making work more taxing and our efficiency lower. Specific reforms to lower school costs and have the government aid in schooling make these majors much more attractive. When I was in school 15 years ago, I had aid for school and aid to help with day care, as I already had 2 kids before I decided to pursue my career in laboratory medicine. Without this, I wouldn't be a part of the health care workforce.

Joan Wagner

Student Guest Post

I was asked by a friend to contribute to this blog and say how I feel about health care reform/my experiences with health care. I am a junior here at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, studying Spanish Education. Especially this semester, I have had extensive dealings with health care, since I was hospitalized four times. To make quite a long story pretty short I had a liver transplant my freshman year of high school due to an autoimmune disease known as Primary Schrelosing Cholangitis. My transplant saved my life, and I’m extremely grateful to be living today because I really shouldn’t be. Throughout my journey in the quest of good health my insurance company has been pretty fantastic, I’m one of the lucky ones in this country in that I have wonderful health insurance under my father and have received the best care because of it. Well, the health insurance company was wonderful until last January when I was told by my team of doctors that I would need another liver transplant, I am one of the extremely rare cases where Primary Schrelosing Cholangitis comes back post-transplant. The moment when my family and I found this out was a very emotional one, but we persisted, knowing that another transplant would greatly extended the length of my life and also greatly improve my quality of life. When we received word that I needed a second transplant, my father called my case worker, an amazing woman who deals with the majority of my care as far as insurance is concerned, and he was told that in the contract that we had my second liver transplant would not be covered by our current plan. I’m sure you can imagine how much worse that made the situation. My family and I immediately started working on an appeal letter. The way the appeal process was explained to us was that we would write a letter to company, and it was suggested that we receive letters speaking toward my character as a person (to show that I would be a productive member of society if I receive the organ) and from my doctors/care givers to speak about how well I took care of myself. After the appeal letter was sent, we would wait and see if our case would be heard by the company, and if it was a court room like proceeding where a panel of people connected (management, employees, etc) to the insurance company would decide my fate. It did not get to this point, but these people would have been deciding whether I live or die had it gotten there. My second transplant was denied, for no reason given other than “it’s not in the contract”, for no fault of my own – doctors have reassured me that there is nothing I did that caused my PSC to return. Luckily, a number of people on the inside of the insurance company saw my case and created an internal appeal that went through, so as of now my second transplant will be covered.
I would like to see the health care system in the United States change. I wish that everybody in the nation would receive high quality health care, like that of my first liver transplant. I feel this way because it just makes sense to me to want everybody to be healthy, and I see government as being a large protection of its people. Universal health care would help to keep the nation healthy, and I see that as a government protecting its people. My parents raised me to care about my fellow person, to treat my neighbor as I would like to be treated and I see both of these values being encompassed in universal health care.
While reading through the major tenants of the recently passed health care bill in the House of Representatives it seems that a lot of them are just making insurance companies into decent companies. Now, children can’t be denied because of pre-existing conditions. The fact that our government had to step in and say that children cannot be denied health care makes me sick. How in the world could anybody tell an ailing child that they cannot get care to get better because they were born with what causes them pain? The same goes for people at any age, how would anybody be able to tell them that they can’t get care because they have a disease that they did nothing to receive? The donut hole in Medicare was made smaller, and now seniors will not have to pay as much for prescriptions. This makes sense to me, once again it seems to be a government caring for its people.

Student Guest Author

I think this is a very interesting point to the health care debate, and this reform offers a unique solution to the problem. Before reading these proposals, I was not aware of the lack of health care providers. Now knowing this problem, I feel that a reform is needed. This proposal offers a good way to help out people interested in going into the health care profession. By teaching students at secondary schools about health care professions, they could be more interested and dedicated to the job. By giving them a taste of a future career, it could inspire students to work harder in school. I think it is also important for the government to better fund geriatric care training, since this is incredibly important to our country’s health care system. I think a governmental program to help pay off student loans for people in the healthcare profession would be very helpful. As a student that was considering a career in medicine, the amount of money needed to pay for medical school definitely weighed into my decision. If there had been some way to get some of my schooling paid for, I may have considered this path more. Even if this raised tax dollars, I think that it would a good investment for our nations future. Most people trust and see the value in having a good doctor, so I think that raising taxes to support doctors would be widely supported. In order to improve our system, some money will need to be spent, and I think that making school less expensive for doctors is good expenditure. If there are more healthcare workers, it will be easier for people to get care. I think this is extremely valuable to our system. If we can make students want to join the healthcare field early on, we will have more doctors that can provide better care.

Incentives for Recruitment and Retention of Rural Doctors

With the face of healthcare in America constantly changing, especially since we have an aging population, the shift to primary care is key in lowering healthcare costs and in improving access and quality. There is a shortage of primary care doctors in America. In addition, there is also some serious maldistribution of those doctors. The previous reform blog for our group suggested incentives for medical students to pursue primary care or family practitioner positions. This reform blog builds on that, but for the need of incentives, not only for all primary care, but also specifically for rural doctors, either to draw more healthcare workers, or to retain those employees and make sure their needs are met as professionals in those areas. There needs to be recruitment and retention of doctors in rural practice. This will require the removal of disincentives to rural practice, and the provision of incentives, which help to counteract the additional responsibility of isolated practice. Rural doctors have identified financial, work practice and professional issues that can be adapted to enhance the capacity of rural doctors to remain in rural practice. These strategies will also assist the recruitment of doctors to rural practice.
The first issue is finding strategies to enhance financial incentives. This is the part that we feel the government holds a bigger responsibility in. We feel that the government should be more of a major payer and regulator when it comes to incentives for rural doctors. Not necessarily should the government have to foot the whole bill, but there should be incentives for the facilities to help in retaining and recruiting doctors, such as grants and tax breaks. Adequate financial rewards that recognize the complexity and degree of clinical responsibility accepted by rural doctors are an important incentive.
Some strategies are:
• Funding models that provide security and flexibility for the doctor and recognize the physician as a community resource.
• Additional payments to rural practitioners in recognition of higher level of clinical responsibility, services provided and on call demands.
• Specific incentive payments for practicing in isolated/underserved areas.
• Financial assistance to maintain the economic viability of at least two doctors working together in a rural location.
• Funding for travel and other costs for the doctor to attend continuing medical education.
• Support and incentives for rural doctors' spouses and families.
As stated before, retention of rural doctors is just as important as recruiting. The retention of rural doctors is predicated on the satisfaction that they achieve in both their professional and personal life. The isolation of rural practice puts strains on both of these. There is a need to provide an adequate working environment for rural doctors to use the extended range of skills that they have required. Too often the rural doctor has to work in substandard facilities. The extended period of on-call, often single handed, is a source of stress to doctors and their families. Such conditions must be alleviated if doctors are to remain in rural areas.
The next issue in retaining and recruiting rural doctors is the fear of an unstructured career path. Many fear not being able to change their career path once in a rural setting. The opposite must be implemented.
Such as:
• Access to ongoing appropriate continuing medical education to enhance and maintain their skills.
• Development of clear and attractive career pathways for rural practitioners.
• Preferential access to specialist training for those rural doctors who choose to change career pathways.
• There should be no financial, career or regulatory barriers to doctors moving to practice in urban areas.
• Academic appointments and support for rural doctors.
These and other strategies could help with the shortage of rural doctors. Family practice, primary care, and rural care may not seem as flashy and precise as specialty medicine but it will be the key in changing America’s failing health and failing health care around. We need to instill more incentives in rural America because they deserve the same level of quality and access and also lower costs. These steps towards preventive care will be the turning point for access in this country.



Sources: (all of which are a good read too and provide more insight)
http://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/aboutWonca/working_groups/rural_training/practice/Practi07.htm
http://www.amavic.com.au/page/About_Us/AMA_Agenda/Current_Issues/Incentives_for_rural_doctors_needed
http://www.glgroup.com/News/Shortage-of-Rural-Doctors---The-U.S.-Can-Learn-From-Canada-14602.html

Reform Proposal #3

In order to decrease health care costs and increase access to health care in America, the United States Government needs to create incentives for future medical students to enter the primary care sector. These incentives should include reimbursement of student loans for medical school, along with a bonus for signing on for at least ten years in the primary care sector. Throughout the past 40 years there has been an overwhelming decline between the ratios of primary care physicians to specialty care physicians. Specialty physicians have increased by a whopping 118%, while primary care physicians have only increased by 18%. Specialty physicians are qualified in a specific segment of medicine. Some examples might be pediatrics, surgery of all types, and anesthesiology. Specialty trained physicians commonly require additional years of advanced residency training along with several years of practice in the specialty, and being certified by taking and passing a specialty board exam. Primary care physicians, on the other hand, provide more preventative care and treat more common illnesses like head colds and non-life threatening injuries (cuts and bruises).

The fact that our system has too many specialty physicians and not enough primary care physicians affects the ideas of cost, quality, and access for citizens throughout the United States. The increase of specialty physicians is a result of the innovation of all kinds of new technology. However, the increase of specialty physicians is causing an increase in the usage of expensive tests and procedures to treat patients, even when they are unnecessary. This is causing part of the increasing health care costs. Quality of care is also negatively affected by the increase of specialty physicians, partly because of the income gap between specialty and primary care physicians. According to primary care physician Kevin Pho, “. . . The resulting income gap between specialists and primary care providers has serious consequences. Primary care providers may resort to shorter patient visits, with adverse affects on the satisfaction and well-being of their patients.” This fact is quite startling, but it shows how a primary care physician is not viewed as a prestigious and important study of medicine. This ultimately affects the quality because of attitudes of physicians, and even patients, have toward the area. Shortage of visits may also be a result of the lower ratio of primary physicians to patients. Along with quality and cost, access is also affected. With the baby-boomer generation becoming older, there will need to be an increase in primary care physicians to carry out simple vaccinations and yearly physicals. If the rate of primary care physicians stays the way it is now, there will be a significant shortage in few years to come as the baby-boomers age.

As stated in our stance on this issue, we firmly believe that all people should have equal access to health care since we view it as a basic right; we value life and care about the disadvantaged. We believe that the government should be actively involved in health services delivery to decrease overlap and excess spending since we value effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore, by implementing an incentive program to increase primary care physicians, we would decrease costs and increase quality and access. Increasing primary care physicians would decrease costs because the use of unnecessary tests and procedures would decrease. Also, an increase in primary care physicians would increase preventative services, thus, decreasing tertiary actions to treat disease and decrease costs. Quality of care would increase because the more preventative services provided decreases the amount of disease and mortality. An increase of primary physicians will increase a value in primary care. These physicians will feel as important as specialty physicians, thus will be more likely to ‘give it their all’ to patients. An increase of primary physicians will increase access to health care by creating more time slots for appointments and even more flexible times for appointments (i.e. weekends and later hours). This will be a significant factor in the next five to ten years because of the baby-boomer generation.

By giving incentives to future medical students enter the primary care field, will only generate benefits to patients and tax payers because of the decrease of costs, increase in quality care, and more access to care.

Now that Obama’s Health Care reform bill has been passed in Congress and signed, there will be an increase of the population entering the health system because the uninsured will now be covered. The idea of increasing primary physicians is key in creating an effective and efficient health care system for all!

Sources:

Physician Kevin Pho’s ideas on the shortage of primary care physicians:
Pho, Kevin. "Primary care-specialty income gap: It’s worse than we think." KevinMD.com. N.p., 23 May 2007. Web. 29 Mar 2010. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/05/primary-care-specialty-income-gap-its.html
The American Medical News portrays the struggles between specialty and primary care physicians:
Croasdale, Myrle. "Work force study tackles specialty vs. primary care." American Medical News 11 April 2005: n. pag. Web. 29 Mar 2010. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/04/11/prsb0411.htm
James Artvantes of AAFP interviews physicians to get their ideas on the shortage issue:
Artvantes, James. "Primary Care Physician Shortages Can Be Traced Largely to Pipeline Issues, Says FP." AAPF 23 Sep 2009: n. pag. Web. 29 Mar 2010. http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/professional-issues/20090923medpac-pcps.html
Margaretann Cross of Managed Care Magazine gives more incite, along with graphs, about the shortage of primary care physicians in America:
Cross, Margaretann. "What the Primary Care Physician Shortage Means for Health Plans." Managed Care Magazine Jun 2007: n. pag. Web. 29 Mar 2010. http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0706/0706.shortage.html
This is an awesome, fairly recent article pertaining to the shortage of primary care givers:
Carmichael, Mary. "The Doctor Won’t See You Now." Newsweek 26 Feb 2010: n. pag. Web. 29 Mar 2010. http://www.newsweek.com/id/234218

Reform Proposal #2

The government should implement health sciences programs in public secondary schools so that students can prepare for careers in health professions. Programs should aim to be intriguing for students. The government should support education and training grants to meet the critical needs of Americans who require mental and behavioral care. They should also increase funding for geriatric education and training. Finally, they create scholarships and loan repayment programs for allied health professionals. Once those interested in health care have decided to pursue a career in it, they should have help with paying for the schooling. In doing so, the number of people working in the health care workforce will increase making access to care easier. There will be more workers trained in working with the elderly and mental health needs patients as well. This will decrease costs by making services more available to the public. Access and quality will increase since there will be more physicians available to spend quality time with their patients.

Supporting health care professions is important because it is an effective way to encourage students to join the health care workforce. Students and young people respond well to getting help with paying for schooling. Medical school is very expensive, but with scholarships and support for health sciences programs more people will be apt to choose a health profession. The people in the health care workforce are important to our nation’s well being so the government should support them. Although this may increase taxes, which many people fear, it will ultimately decrease overall costs and increase the number of health care workers, which are both positive things for the health of our nation. Making the health care industry attractive to young people is important at this moment in time for our nation, as there is a shortage of workers and low level of access to care.

Supporting health sciences programs in secondary schools is an important step towards health care access on a national level. Learn more about access problems and reforms at these websites. Title V’s subcategory on ‘Supporting the Next Generation of Health Professionals’ is referenced most.


Sources:

Putting Americans In Control of Their Health Care
Title V. Health Care Workforce
Supporting the Next Generation of Health Professionals
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal/titlev/supporting-next-generation

Increasing the Supply of Primary Care Providers in Underserved Communities
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal/titlev/increasing-supply

Issues: Health Reform
Benefits of Health Reform
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/index.php

The Costs of Inaction
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction/diminishing/

Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hccd/concernsc.html

Reform Proposal #1

The government should fund scholarships and loan repayment programs for students going into the heath care workforce.  By funding scholarships and loan repayment programs, the number of primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, mental health providers, and dentists will increase in the areas of the country that need them most.  With a comprehensive approach focusing on retention and enhanced educational opportunities, this combats the critical nursing shortage.  And through new incentives and recruitment, this proposal would increase the supply of public health professionals so that the United States is prepared for health emergencies.  This proposal would require an increase in spending towards funds for these students while those paying for school would experience a decrease in their personal spending.  Imagine how much differently people would view going into the health field if they knew they could receive financial assistance.

Some may feel that spending money to help pay for the cost of schooling is not as important as other areas of health care.  If we don’t fix our shortages and find ways to increase the number of health providers we won’t even be able to provide basic care for those people who need it.  The more expensive schooling is the fewer people there will be who are willing to pay the high costs and become educated in the medical field.  By offering help with the costs more people will have the opportunity to become a public health professional.  

Because doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are the backbone of the health care system, we need to make more of an effort to reverse the shortages and maintain an appropriate number of people in our workforce.  Could you imagine what would happen if these shortages became more common? Lets act now and prevent the worst from happening.

If you would like to read more about the shortages of health care providers and the effects it has on people I encourage you to view this website:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs302/en/index.html

Sources in APA:

Putting Americans In Control Of Their Healthcare. Retrieved February 26, 2010, from

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal/titlev/increasing-supply

Obama for America. (n.d.). BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN’S PLAN TO LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

 Nurse Shortages. American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/factsheets/nursingshortage.htm

 Public Health Workforce Study. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/publichealth/default.htm

 ‘Delivering Health Care in America’ A systems approach

 

Workforce Overview

The largest labor force in the United States is the health care labor force and represents more than 3% of the total labor force. There are many different occupations and workplaces in health care that a lot of people don’t think about. Many people think about physicians, nurses and occupations along that line when they think about health care occupations, but there are also pharmacists, massage therapists, dieticians, midwives, and many more. Health care employees are not just employed at hospitals and clinics; they may work for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, colleges, and various other places. The list of health care occupations and places where health care workers are employed is constantly expanding and adding new employees and places as technology changes and grows. New and more complicated technology is being invented and put to use, so more technicians are needed to train individuals on how to operate them.

One of the main problems with the workforce is that it is not distributed evenly throughout the country. There are many people that are part of the health care industry and a lot of them reside in urban areas because there are more opportunities to advance their careers and usually more money available. This causes a lot of rural areas to be deficient in the number of medical facilities that are available for the public. The government has looked at several ways to persuade physicians and other health care professionals to relocate to rural areas. One of them is the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), which makes scholarships available to students that commit to working in an underserved area. Through more health care reforms more programs like NHCS can be possible and more underserved areas of our country can get the medical they need and deserve.

For a more complete list of health care occupations go to this website and look at the various other positions in the health care industry:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/careers-health-care/directory.shtml

For more information on the geographic maldistribution of physicians look at this research article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361233/#__secid158484

For more information on National Health Service Corps go to this website: http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/

Philosophical/Political Stance:

“The American people understand that good health is the foundation of individual achievement and economic prosperity. Ensuring quality, affordable health care for every single American is essential to children's education, workers' productivity and businesses' competitiveness. We believe that covering all is not just a moral imperative, but is necessary to making our health system workable and affordable. Doing so would end cost-shifting from the uninsured, promote prevention and wellness, stop insurance discrimination, help eliminate health care disparities, and achieve savings through competition, choice, innovation, and higher quality care.”

- Democratic Party

Our group is politically affiliated with the Democratic Party and is on-board with the Obama Administration when concerning Health Care Reform. We firmly believe that all people should have equal access to health care since we view it as a basic right; we value life and care about the disadvantaged. We believe that the government should be actively involved in health services delivery to decrease overlap and excess spending since we value effectiveness and efficiency. We believe that everyone should have the chance to receive an education, regardless of his or her socioeconomic status to be able to contribute to society in the health profession or elsewhere. We value the environment and prioritize clean, and energy efficient technologies that can be applied to science and health since we believe in the advancement of science.

Health Care professionals make up the largest work force in the United States; however, there are still over 45 million Americans who are unable to receive medical care because it’s too expensive which is unacceptable. Our current health care system is more expensive and our insurance companies cover less people than other nations such as Germany, Taiwan, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Our beliefs and values truly represent a system in which more Americans would receive affordable coverage, premiums would be lowered, and superior quality would be guaranteed. In the fragmented health care system today, around ten percent of premature deaths are due to the lack of accessible health care. Imagine if you had a friend or loved one that died because he or she was unable to afford care.

If the Democratic Party can pass this health care reform bill, majority of Americans would receive health care at an affordable cost. The quality of the care would increase since the government would provide incentives, information and support to help physicians and other professionals work together to improve quality of care while reducing costs. We also are committed to passing Obamas governmental insurance program that would force other insurance companies to lower their rates in order to keep their business. This new public health insurance option would compete with private insurers and keep them honest. In doing so, people could choose to stay with their private insurers and those who couldn’t afford private insurance would have the option to be covered under government insurance. According to the Obama-Biden Health Care plan, the workforce would be addressed as the following:

“Primary care providers and public health practitioners have and will continue to lead efforts to protect and promote the nation’s health. Yet, the numbers of both are dwindling, and the existing workforce is further challenged by inadequate training for new health threats such as bioterrorism and avian flu, antiquated funding and reimbursement mechanisms, and limited access to real-time information and technical support. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand funding—including loan repayment, adequate reimbursement, grants for training curricula, and infrastructure support to improve working conditions— to ensure a strong workforce that will champion prevention and public health activities.”

I encourage you all to visit the following links to learn more about our party and our political views which are explained in further depth: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/health_care/hr3962_WORKFORCE.pdf.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf


Some people value an individual’s health as priority over community well-being and in turn believe health care should be a market justice system. Believing in this only allows for a larger gap between the rich and the poor and will only make our nation weaker. As Americans, we need to strive for a strong and healthy well being for all people so that we can prosper and become a fierce competitor with other countries collectively. We need to focus our energy onto prevention and health promotion so that people will use less sick days and be a better employee and aid to the company. We need to provide care for our future generations who are currently in an obesity epidemic since they are our nations future. We, as members of the Democratic Party, adhere to spend our time making this nation the best place to live on earth and we need your support to make this a reality!


Push for Health Care Reform for a brighter future and a better tomorrow!


YES WE CAN!




Sources in APA:
What it means to be a Democrat (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2010, from http://www.csus.edu/org/democrat/beliefs/index.html

Democratic National Committee. (2007). Health Care for All. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from http://www.democrats.org/a/national/american_dream/affordable_health_care/

The New England Journal of Medicine. (2009, November 5). Reform and the Health Care Workforce- Current Capacity, Future Demand. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/19/e38

‘Delivering Health Care in America’ A systems approach

Affordable Health Care For America Act: House Committee On Ways and Means. (2009, October 29). Affordable Health Care For America Act. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/health_care/hr3962_WORKFORCE.pdf


Obama for America. (n.d.). BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN’S PLAN TO LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2008). Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach (Fourth ed. ). Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett .

Welcome!

Welcome to our US Health Care Blog concerning Work force! Thank you for taking the time to visit our site, we really appreciate it! We highly value your opinion and views on this interesting topic and would love for you to post a comment, or several! The more we can communicate about this controversial topic, the more we will gain in this learning experience. Stay tuned for our first post in which we will address our beliefs and values as it relates to Health Care and the Work force!