hmm i have never in my 20 plus years of nursing thought about how the nurse profession can extend health care coverage to uninsured. i always thought that if you didnt work or couldnt work the gov would pay it for you.   is this not the case?? if i were you i would look into another topic like..... how can the profession of nursing help the uninsured to become more healthy by adopting certain habits that will prevent them from needing care like.....diet and exercise. oh yeah and speaking of diet did you see the huge study done by UCLA with more than 84,000 subjects that def proves eating breakfast is the very most important healthy thing you can do for yourself !!! WOW  i guess grandma was right. The study started in 1964  and some of the subjects are over 100 years old now. Pretty awesome. well anyways good luck with your paper.

I contact our social services department.  On our admission assessment, we have questions designed to flag people who are uninsured for further assistance.  If the pt, has 'financial concerns' it is also flagged for further follow up.  I think a lot of it depends on where you work, and what state you work in. 

The population that is going to suffer the most, are those that are about 10 years from retirement.  I figure thats about the time, our government debt is going to cause massive cutbacks in our public services, including medicare, medicaid, state aging programs, and social security.  What we can do, is encourage our MD's to write scripts for generic drugs.  I know that is the largest part of my 85 yo Mother's budget. 

Its bad...........          I have been out of nursing school for quite a while myself like Kelly, but man........I never had a class that delt with worrying about the uninsured folks healthcare costs.   Um......personally I do have disabilty myself due to MS and my husband is about to divorce me.  Personally, I saw that no one responded when I was wondering who was up for the election against Obama.  I just think people thould quit smoking..........eating fried everything..........not following common sense orders for good health.  Quit asking for hand outs from the folk who work hard and who have always worked hard as well.  I know my disability will probably be cut or totally zapped.  Im ok with it it guess.