Contributors
Eric Hogue- Contributor

Eric Hogue is a talk radio host at Sacramento station KTKZ and s the principal behind the blog Hogue Blog. [go to Hoge index]

Costly Nurses Law Begins...
Keeping unions in control...
[Eric Hogue] 1/2/04

A costly new state law for California workers and business owners…a law signed by Gray Davis and supported by the Democrats and the Nurses Union, mandating one nurse for every six hospital patients in California.

Here is another example of the future of government (socialized) health care in California. There is no emergency or health need for a 1-to-6 nurse to patient staff law, but we get one due to union campaign money, the union’s growth of dues and control and a willing government to make the deal in exchange for campaign cash, favors and tenure.

This is government demanding ‘staffing numbers’ to health care officials who will pass this expense on to the patients health care cost in the end. If you were a hospital, how would you handle the increase of staffing mandated by this new liberal law? You would pass it along to the patients, who will be sapped by the health care providers. In the end businesses health insurance will increase!

Consider the striking grocery workers in Southern California, they are upset over a $15 increase per pay for growing health care benefit costs. Here we have the nurses union ‘creating expensive mandates’ that force employers to pass the premium increases on to the workers. Shouldn’t the grocery workers be screaming at the nurses union over this new law? No way…in the end the unions always win!

For the unions, they get to strike in Southern California for more salary increases (more union dues) and they get to force the hiring of more nurses with this staffing law (more union dues) for the state. They build a straw man argument of ‘unfair health benefit costs’ in Southern California while they shout scream ’unsafe nurse numbers in Sacramento’.

Who are the losers in this new law?…Health insurance providers and their premiums, employers, hospital budgets, the and the self employed workers - not to mention those who take care of their health concerns with MSA, who will now have to pay more for services and offer the unions more dues and political control.

Welcome to the strategy session of the Democrat Party and their play toy, the labor unions. This will increase health care costs, make more businesses pass the added expense on to the workers, create more union dues for union control and increase the argument that we need universal health care – actually social health care!

This is ALL about politics and NOT about health care and hospital safety. This new law sounds like it will provide better care, but in the end it eats at hospital revenue and will drive more hospitals to shrink services and risks.

Unions get more control, political control - in turn the Democrats can use this in TWO political messages; (1) “Look we created more jobs and better care”, (2) “Health care costs are too expensive, we need socialized health care.”

copyright 2004 Eric Hogue

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