Despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare as any other country on Earth, we have worse patient outcomes and lower life expectancy than other comparable countries, while millions of Americans lack healthcare coverage.
Pennsylvanians understand that our healthcare system is fundamentally broken and unaffordable because it prioritizes the profits of health systems, insurance companies, and drug companies over quality patient care.
Because the United States remains the only rich country on Earth to not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right, Americans are less likely to see a doctor and are more often unable to make a prompt appointment for medical care than people in peer countries.
Only by guaranteeing healthcare for all can we improve patient outcomes, lower the cost of our healthcare system, make healthcare jobs into stable jobs that working people can raise a family on, and break the stranglehold that healthcare corporations have on the lifesaving care that our nurses and healthcare workers provide to patients everyday.
Instead, politicians – along with the billionaires and healthcare corporations spending hundreds of millions to steer the direction of our government – are working to cut what little healthcare coverage Americans have: Medicaid and Medicare. Rather than guaranteeing healthcare, some of our elected leaders wish to put patients and healthcare workers further at the mercy of massive healthcare corporations with these cuts.
As Pennsylvania nurses and healthcare workers, we stand with our patients who receive lifesaving care because of Medicaid funding – whether it’s people who rely on rural hospitals, mothers who cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars to give birth, or anyone else who needs to receive care.
We demand that our elected leaders guarantee healthcare for all, rather than cutting the limited healthcare coverage available to Americans.