The New York State Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

This course has been awarded 1.35 contact hours.

These are true stories. Unfortunately, these Americans don’t have to imagine. They live with life-threatening health conditions everyday. Perhaps, they will even die from these conditions. Why? Because they do not have health insurance.

Today, at least 47 million people in the U.S. – 15.8% of the population – are without health insurance. Why is this important? Health insurance is the golden key that opens the healthcare service door. Those without it:

• Receive about half (55%) of the medical care per person;
• Receive less preventive care;
• Are diagnosed at more advanced disease states;
• Tend to receive less therapeutic care;
• Have higher mortality rates. It is estimated that:
  • 18,000 excess deaths result every year in adults aged 25-64.
  • A 50% increase in medical care use could reduce mortality rates by 5-15%.
  (Hadley & Holahan, 2004)

The number of uninsured has risen from 39 million people in 2001 to 47 million in 2006! That number is predicted to continue to grow if major health reforms are not enacted.

This course was written by a registered nurse for other nurses. Its inspiration came from firsthand, frontline nursing experience. Experience where patients had intractable pain because they couldn’t afford adequate pain medication; patients whose wounds healed slowly or failed to heal because their insurance company would not pay for necessary dressing supplies or nursing care; or other patients, who lost eyesight, kidney function, or even limbs because of untreated diabetes.

Limiting access to care is considered "good business" by the power-brokers who control the U.S. healthcare system. If you, like the registered nurse who wrote this course, are tired of patient care decisions being made based upon what a patient’s insurance company will pay, then this course is for you. The course has been designed to raise nurses' awareness about the national problem of uninsurance; to explain why a national single payer solution is needed to solve this problem; and to outline actions that nurses can take to help solve this national crisis.

It is time for nurses to stand together and advocate for our patients, to say "no" to limiting access to care based on ability to pay, and to say "yes" to a single standard of care for all Americans.

© 2008 NYSNA, all rights reserved.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course the learner will be able to:

• Identify at least two health effects of uninsurance upon individuals.
• Identify at least two ways that people typically lose health insurance.
• Identify at least one way that high uninsured rates impact the health of communities.
• List six reasons that so many people in the U.S. are uninsured.
• Contrast the cost, quality, and access of the U.S. healthcare system with healthcare systems in other industrialized nations.
• Correctly define Universal Health Care (UHC).
• Identify at least three UHC myths.
• Identify two reasons why a national strategy is needed to achieve UHC.
• Identify the five universal health care principles and goals.
• List three advantages of a national single-payer system.
• List three ways that nurses can get involved in the U.S. UHC effort.

The purposes of this course are to: raise nurses' awareness about the national problem of uninsurance; explain why a national single payer solution is needed to solve this problem; and to outline actions that nurses can take to make guaranteed quality affordable health care for all a reality in the United States.