Nursing A Signature

As some of you know, I’ve been collecting signatures as to be on the ballot this fall as the Republican candidate in Massachusetts’ 2nd Franklin District for State Representative. Today is the deadline for signatures, so I may be a bit busy later.

While signature trolling this morning at a local coffee shop, I asked a woman for hers, upon which she asked me how I felt about a bill presently on Boston’s Beacon Hill about nurse staffing. She felt the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should tell hospitals how many patients nurses should be responsible for, while adding that hospital CEOs make too much money.

At some point, after I officially make the ballot, I’ll have to bone up on more state issues like this one. The woman, who it turns out is a nurse, kind of threw me for a loop and I had to think quick.

I responded that I didn’t feel the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be telling any business how it should staff. Once you open that door, it’s very hard to close it later. Also, I don’t believe the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be regulating the pay of a CEO, or minimum wage worker for that matter.

I’ve previously argued that just because one is a politician, doesn’t make one an instant expert on any given topic. I’m sure a lot of you remember Hillary Clinton’s personal crusade to institute universal health care nationally. One would think she would know all about the topic, given the size and scope of her undertaking.

But contrast her apparent expertise on the subject with her highly publicized visit last summer with Michelle Estrada, a nurse at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nevada.

According to Susan Page of USA Today,

The nurse’s 12-hour shift at the hospital’s Siena campus started as usual at 7 a.m. but at mid-afternoon Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived. The New York senator spent more than two hours shadowing Estrada in the fourth-floor medical/surgical ward before heading to Estrada’s home for dinner with her and her three children.

“I’m following Michelle around today to see what a nurse does,” Clinton explained to the patient in Room 471.

Now, I may have missed something here.

Save for the fact she’s a politician, is thereby granted expert status on every topic, and was very close to crafting legislation for every hospital, medical school, insurance company, and patient in the United States, if she was THAT qualified to do so, why did she need to follow a nurse around all day just to find out what she does?

As far as what’s happening here in Massachusetts, I would have to talk to all sides, and still doubt I could come to a truly educated position on the issue. Of course, if I were more concerned about the political support I could get from one side or the other, my decision could probably be reached quite easily.

It is my understanding that the universal health care law in Massachusetts has incurred those unintended consequences. By forcing people to buy into the program, the state now has more people to subsidize that was originally sold to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.

In its first full year, universal health coverage in Massachusetts will cost the state $153.1 million more than was budgeted, according to a supplemental budget request released Monday by Gov. Deval Patrick. The state had appropriated $472 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, but enrollment in the state’s subsidized insurance programs for low- and middle-income workers exceeded expectations.
– New York Times, 4/17/08

In selling the Massachusetts citizenry this bill of goods, politicians said universal health care would ultimately save the state money. Politicians gave us an estimated cost, but the Governor will seek near $900 million for the next fiscal year to pay for this program. Politicians are routinely bad mathematicians. See “The Big Dig.”

In the search for “revenue”, Massachusetts has chased more businesses out of the state, thus putting more people out of work. This has also resulted in more foreclosures of homes because of people who can no longer find work and pay their mortgages, thus reducing property tax revenue per town. To solve this problem, the state will ultimately have to raise taxes on those remaining, while looking for more business to lure here to soak.

The nurse commented that hospital CEO pay should be regulated by the state. I responded, as the knee-jerk conservative, that I didn’t think the government should come in and tell businesses how to run themselves. Personally, I’ve never worked in a hospital, thus I’m not qualified to determine the worth of a CEO.

I will say this: I’m sure you can find people who’ll do the job for $35k a year. But as that person’s experience and qualifications would be limited, is that really what she’d want? I believe the nurse I was talking to bought into the whole class warfare thing, and believed that reducing a CEO’s pay would pay for more nurses, thus reduce her workload.

After talking with someone who works in the field, I’ve been assured that nurses may be “stretched” a little thin, but at an average of $25-an-hour plus overtime, they’re not underpaid while “overworked”. Also, the amount of malpractice insurance paid by hospitals for their doctors is an overwhelming amount that could probably build a wing a year and pay for a slew of nurses to staff it. You all know my position on tort reform.

In the end, the nurse declined to sign my sheet, and left in kind of an “I showed him” kind of huff.

Being a politician is all about telling people what they want to hear. For that reason, I may end up sucking at it, but it’s better than not trying at all.