Regarding the article “Millions are ‘medically disenfranchised’: report”:
I am a nurse practitioner at a community hospital. Daily, I encounter people who have lost their healthcare due to loss of job and/or small businesses that are no longer able to afford health care plans.
Recently, a patient’s company was researching a "more affordable plan" and was without healthcare for one month as the company made these changes. His wife's company was "in the process" of picking him up. Unfortunately, he suffered a catastrophic illness which was not predicted as the paperwork was being shuffled. This family is now facing losing everything they have worked for their whole lives; their home, life savings, dreams of college for their children, in order to pay for care and send him to a rehabilitation center. This is very real America! Nurse practitioners make up a large part of the primary care arena; in fact 85% of the over 200,000 advanced-practice nurses in our country are in primary care.
Nurse practitioners need to be included in solving the problem regarding access to health care in our country. For more information, contact the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners or the American College of Nurse Practitioners.
Grace Reilly, RN, MSN, APN
Adult Nurse PractitionerRiverview Medical CenterRed Bank, N.J.
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