One major concern for me and every American is the future of our nation’s health care system. The quality of that system affects us all, and we need details about the candidates’ approach to health care, not high-level talking points.
I write this as a lifelong Republican and registered nurse. The foremost priority for me and my colleagues is providing the best care possible to our patients.
We are deeply concerned that Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, share a prescription for our nation’s health care system grounded in partisan politics that are holding our country back – instead of the reality nurses face in hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms across the country.
Earlier this year, Romney embraced Ryan’s budget proposal. This plan is very clear. It would end Medicare as we know it, drastically cut Medicaid – a lifeline for seniors, people with disabilities and children – and end the benefits and insurance protections of the Affordable Care Act.
Here is who the Romney-Ryan prescription would hurt: everyone who is counting on Medicare to be there when they retire, seniors who rely on nursing home care, people with disabilities, children living below the poverty line, working families struggling to afford health insurance, people with pre-existing conditions and the list goes on. In short, most of the patients my fellow nurses and I treat on a daily basis.
Romney and Ryan would replace Medicare with a private-market plan that gives seniors a voucher toward the cost of care. The really bad news is the value of the voucher would not increase with the cost of care, leaving seniors faced with mounting premiums.
MORE: GOP team is wrong prescription for patients – JSOnline.