HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Addresses AFSCME Nurses

http://www.afscme.org/publications/26159.cfm

May 6, 2009

Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius, speaking this morning before some 300 nurses – members of AFSCME-United Nurses of America (UNA) – said national health reform depends on the LPNs and RNs standing at the frontlines.

“We need to mobilize an army across the country, and I want nurses at the head of that army,” she told the group’s annual National Nurses Congress. “Nurses have always been the strongest and clearest advocates for health care reform.”


HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addresses Nurses Congress.

Photo Credit: Gonzalo Baeza


Making her first public speech in Washington, DC, since becoming secretary on April 29, Sebelius also announced the release today of two reports concerning the quality of health care in America that indicate patient safety measures have worsened and that too many Americans do not receive recommended care. “Today’s reports show why we can’t wait to enact comprehensive health reform,” she said.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the House Democratic leadership, also addressed the nurses before they headed to Capitol Hill to lobby for health care reform. “You are, in fact, the most trusted health care messengers in the country,” she told them. With nurses helping in the battle for quality, affordable health care for all, she said, “I know that we will win.”