In working with our partner organization Health Care for America Now, we’ve received almost 3,000 submissions on our “Keep Healthcare on the Map" interactive Google map.  It's a great way to demonstrate our reach - that we're national movement of healthcare workers and concerned citizens, and that we’re ready for the tough fight ahead.

If you’ve yet to lend your name to our healthcare map, please do so here: http://www.healthcareunited.org/map

While reading many of the submissions, we were (as always) moved by your words, opinions, and stories. We’d like to share with you a few of the entries that we’ve received from your fellow caregivers.

Michael, a registered nurse, father and husband from Tennessee, writes this:

“I see the failings in our current system every day and am scared when any of my family is admitted (into it). Nurses are understaffed, overwhelmed and under-supported and patients suffer.  I support mandatory nurse to patient ratios. I support a dramatic push to end the nursing shortage and I believe the government needs to lead the way.”

Karen, a family nurse practitioner from Colorado, congratulates President-Elect Obama and writes:

“You've definitely given us hope! Let us now come together to universally provide proper medical care to all. Understandably, we'll need to provide incentives to shift physicians, PAs and FNPs (Family Nurse Practitioners) to the primary care sector. Still, that minor hurdle can be overcome. Even before the current financial crisis, many people could not afford preventative and maintenance treatments that might otherwise have kept them out crisis. For the price of one ER visit, we could have given them months of preventative visits and all their medications.”

Elizabeth, an RN from Michigan, worries about the expenses of her own healthcare:

“As a nurse, I have seen too many times that patients have had to make a choice between purchasing their medications & eating. The last new prescriptions that I had filled at my hospital (employer) pharmacy cost me, out of pocket,  $126.00. I feel lucky that I have a job and that I am keeping my head above water for now, but I fear for the future. Good luck, and may God bless you.”

“Sarochan,” a medical student, worries that the complex insurance system might ruin any positive experience in the medical field:

“As someone who has relied on health insurance to get life-changing surgery, I know how important it is to have good insurance -- and how devastating any illness or injury can be when you know you can't pay for the medical care you need. I myself am studying to be a doctor, partially because of my positive medical experiences. But when I read about the whole health insurance situation, I doubt the sanity of wanting to enter into that whole business. Everyone deserves healthcare, not expensive insurance from companies that will try anything to not pay for the medical care.”

Cornelius, a psychotherapist in Nevada, who may have to leave the profession because of healthcare:

“I am a relatively healthy middle aged psychotherapist who because of pre-existing condition is unable to get coverage. I may have to abandon serving the most needy clients in favor of a corporate job in order not to risk catastrophe should I become ill. This needs to be a first order of business.”

And finally, Elda, an insurance agent from Texas, writes this:

“I see first hand the decisions people have to make regarding how to pay for health care and their concerns about being declined for coverage due to pre-existing conditions. All Americans should have a right to good health care at an affordable price even if the government has to change the tax codes or provide incentives to families in the form of subsidies or other financial assistance to help every American pay for health coverage.”

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