Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined healthcare workers and healthcare providers Wednesday to support making healthcare affordable for Americans this year.

Reid and Solis stood with nurses, doctors and leading healthcare providers before they delivered hospital scrub tops to Congress inscribed with written messages from thousands of frontline healthcare workers across the country.

Healthcare workers and administrators launched the “Every Patient Matters” campaign Wednesday through the Partnership for Quality Care, to ensure that America’s direct caregivers have a voice in the debate on how to provide quality and affordable healthcare to all Americans.

Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare, said that with Reid’s help, healthcare reform will be passed this year.

"Senator Reid is an incredible advocate on behalf of working women and men of Nevada and throughout this country, and a leader who knows we can do what is right. We can pass healthcare reform this year," Rivera said.

Reid said there were 10,000 scrub tops from around the country, and that insurance companies make the most money in the healthcare field. He said people ask why insurance companies do better than any other business in America during these hard times.

“The reason is that [the] insurance industry is not subject to the anti-trust laws we have in our country. More than a hundred years ago, big businesses were running our country...Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law under a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, because big business had gotten out of hand,” he said.

Donnetta Miller, a registered nurse from Nevada, presented Reid an inscribed scrub top to thank him for being “a champion on getting healthcare reform passed.”

Miller wore a shirt that read, “As a healthcare provider, I wish to voice my demand for healthcare reform. This must pass this year, this congress. Our patients cannot wait another year. We’re swiftly approaching collapse of the Medicare/Medicaid system. Our seniors, our patients deserve healthcare reform. Donnetta Miller."

Solis said she understands the importance and how pivotal insurance reform is for the nation right now.

“Asthma, diabetes, obesity, cancers, HIV and AIDS. All these things and illnesses prevent people from getting healthcare right now, or they die from not getting healthcare. And we can’t afford to leave that be the status quo. We need to change it, “ she said.

Diane Palmer, a nurse from Maryland, held up a scrub top and read a message that a nurse from Seattle had written on it. The message said, “My 12 year old has chronic health issues. She runs the risk of meeting her max coverage without healthcare reform. We could face a life or death situation. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a nation to protect one. Please protect my child."

George Halverson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, said America is the only country in the industrialized world that has not created universal coverage.

“We are the only country in the industrialized world where our people need to worry that a healthcare event is going to drive them into a solvency or bankruptcy. That is wrong,” he said.