Testimony of Jean Ross, RN on Behalf of National Nurses United Before the Subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee December 10, 2019
Testimony of Jean Ross, RN On Behalf of National Nurses United Before the Subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee December 10, 2019 Hearing on “Proposals to Achieve Universal Health Care Coverage” Good morning and thank you, Chairwoman Eshoo, Ranking Member Burgess, and members of the subcommittee for holding this important hearing today. My name is Jean Ross. I have been a registered nurse (RN) in Minnesota for over 40 years, and I am President of National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union representing RNs in the United States. We represent over 150,000 members who work as bedside healthcare professionals in every state in the nation. In my testimony today, I will use my experiences as a registered nurse to illustrate two main points to you: first, the patchwork health system of public programs and private for-profit insurers that we currently have in the United States is ineffective, inefficient, and unjustifiably unaffordable for our patients and for our country; second, the only way that we can guarantee every person living in this country receives the healthcare that they need is by adopting a single payer, Medicare for All system, which would excise the complexity and corporate profiteering that pervades our health system today. As a registered nurse, I have cared for people in their darkest hours, when they are sick, injured, and dying. Every single day, nurses bear witness to the failures of our current health care system. I have watched as patients refuse the medications, procedures, and care they need because they cannot afford the costs of their copays or deductibles.
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