AGH Nurses Meet With President Obama

15 nurses and 2 nurse managers from Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) in Pittsburgh were among 150 from around the nation who met with President Barack Obama today in the Rose Garden at the White House to hear about his plans to change the health care system. Cathy Stoddart, a kidney transplant nurse at AGH, told DUQ News that she wanted to hear that the president was committed to choices and competition. She said that with more competition, insurance costs will come down and more people will be able to afford care.
In his address to a joint session of Congress last night, Mr. Obama said that his plan would not add a single dollar to the deficit and that much of it would be paid for by cutting waste. Stoddart believes that can work:

"We know as nurses places where if we are taking care of people before they are too sick or half-dead before they come into the hospital, if we can intervene ahead of time, we know we can save health care dollars on lab tests and X-rays and costly medical treatments, if we can take care of them early."

One of the points of contention has been whether there should be a public option...run by the government for those who can't afford private insurance even with subsidies.
Sue McCarthy is a neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit nurse. She questions that argument:

"We already have a public option. We already have a lot of charity care. We have a lot of people coming into the health care system that don't have health care insurance, and we are paying for them."

McCarthy says she heard from the president what she wanted to hear...that he is not giving up his efforts to change the health care system