Latham Report: Health Care Is Not Political
Washington,
Oct 16 -
While Wall Street is reeling from the recent financial events in the market, I want to make sure we don't lose sight of one of the most important issues facing Iowa right now: access to quality health care.
Iowans are known for their health. We have some of the longest life spans of anyone in the country. We've got some of the cleanest air to breathe and some of the cleanest water to drink. But illness is possible at any age. The fact of the matter is that, no matter who you are, you will need some sort of health care during your lifetime. In order to make sure Iowans maintain the highest expectation of care in the country, two things need to happen.
The first is that we need to enact a comprehensive common-sense health plan. The Washington elite needs to understand that all Americans should have access to affordable health care—including prescription drugs—and these costs should not burden future generations.
As we experience economic upturns and downturns, our health care system needs to be affordable, today, without selling out our grandchildren’s futures. Part of that is also making sure that wellness and prevention efforts are top national priorities. And as we grow older, we should have choices when it comes to long-term care—at a level where we can maintain our independence at home or in our communities with expanded and affordable financing options.
The other issue that needs immediate attention is the nursing crisis. Nurses are the backbone of health care in Iowa. And lately, demand for nurses has been outpacing the number of nurses available.
The fact is: we simply need a lot more nurses. In 2007, more than 118,000 nursing jobs went unfilled, but did you know that 40,000 qualified applicants were turned away from America's nursing schools? The problem is the bottleneck: we don't have enough qualified nurse-educators to train all the people who want to become nurses. This trend will continue unless we take action now.
That's why I crafted the Nurses' Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act and introduced it with my fellow colleague Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin. It is the first bi-partisan step in making sure that Iowans have consistent high-quality health care, and that we can all get the support we need when we need it.
Iowa's nurses work in urban trauma centers and rural health clinics. They are the foundation of nearly every patient's health care plan. It is a nurse who takes care of us when we arrive at the hospital… they're there helping us when we get treatment... when we laugh, when we cry, and they're there when we get better.
They're also the ones who are with us when we don't get better. Nurses have the strength of character to bring compassionate professionalism to some of the most difficult times in our lives… and in the lives of our loved ones.
In light of all the health care talk coming out of Washington these days about socialized medicine, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the greatest support structure of America’s health care system is damaged and about to head into a tailspin if we don’t act now. It's a bipartisan effort in Washington, let's make it one in Iowa too.
-30-
