As a nurse practitioner, I’ve spent over a decade working with sufferers throughout a number of the most susceptible moments of their lives. In Washington state, we have been the primary to face the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re nonetheless feeling the long-term pressure on our well being care system. However I’ve by no means felt extra unsure about the way forward for well being care on this nation as I do now, due to the passage of H.R. 1.
On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the tax and spending invoice into legislation — laws that well being care professionals and leaders throughout the political spectrum warned would devastate entry to care and jeopardize the well being of thousands and thousands. In Washington alone, we’re going through a projected 17% lower in Medicaid funding, or $36 billion over 10 years — a number of the steepest losses within the nation. Whereas the numerous cuts within the invoice received’t take impact till after the 2026 midterm elections, sufferers will see some fast changes as hospitals shut and companies are decreased.
It’s uncommon to see whole alignment throughout well being care teams, however H.R. 1 led to unified and pressing opposition. Nurses, physicians, public well being leaders, hospitals and even conservative-leaning legislators raised the alarm. And but, a number of Pacific Northwest lawmakers like U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner, each Washington Republicans, ignored us. Two of the three nurses in Congress, Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Rep. Sheri Biggs, R-S.C., shamefully dismissed the loud warnings from their very own nursing associations and selected occasion loyalty over sufferers by voting for the invoice.
Some of the pivotal particular person swing votes got here from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Alaska. Her “sure” vote successfully ensured its passage, regardless of her personal admission that it was, in her phrases, an “agonizing” choice. “I labored my butt off to be sure that Alaskans weren’t going to be penalized, and we’re not going to be harmed” she said.
However realistically, Alaskans is not going to be remoted from the results of this laws. Sen. Murkowski’s vote and rationale counsel a misunderstanding of simply how interconnected our area’s well being care infrastructure is.
When Alaskans want essentially the most superior trauma or burn care, they’re usually transferred to Harborview Medical Heart in Seattle — a public hospital and the only Degree 1 trauma and burn heart serving all the Pacific Northwest, together with Alaska, Idaho and Montana. The pressure that this invoice will placed on funding for Washington’s well being care system will have an effect on entry to take care of all the area. There isn’t a state-level border with regards to saving lives or needing extremely specialised care.
In the long run, well being care employees would be the ones navigating overcrowded emergency rooms, hospital/clinic closures and sufferers arriving sicker as a result of they delayed care because of value. We would be the ones looking for remedy choices that don’t bankrupt households, as a result of lawmakers who voted for this invoice received’t be there when these inconceivable choices should be made.
And let’s be clear: Lots of these lawmakers who referred to as us “heroes” through the pandemic now dismiss our pleas for assist. They anticipate us to remain silent and stick with it. We should firmly reject this assumption by elevating our tales to convey the true impression of this dangerous laws.
The general public’s belief within the nursing career could run deep, however belief alone doesn’t fund trauma care, maternal well being or behavioral well being companies. It doesn’t exchange the trillions in federal {dollars} stripped from our well being care system. Nurses are trusted as a result of we converse reality to energy, which is what we should do now to guard our sufferers
When the fallout of H.R. 1 begins — when hospitals shut, sufferers endure, and prices rise — sufferers and nurses should remind our communities of who’s accountable, significantly earlier than the subsequent election. We should maintain our elected officers accountable via nonviolent protest, sharing our tales and exercising our proper to vote. Nurses are dedicated to caring for our sufferers to the very best of our capacity, however we additionally acknowledge an obligation to advocate for the methods that maintain their lives.
