The American health care system is in the midst of a radical transformation that is changing nearly every aspect of health care delivery. These changes result from a massive takeover of health care by giant corporations that are increasingly controlling health care delivery. Hospital workers across the country, from nurses to maintenance personnel, are seeing drastic changes in their jobs. The health care industry is being changed from one where high quality care was delivered with compassion to one where efficiency and profit are the top concerns. Hospital workers are the targets of cost-cutting.
Patients are the victims.
The insurance companies claim they need to control escalating costs while extracting the highest profits in the history of health care. The employment based private health insurance system leaves 41,000,000 uninsured and makes it difficult for individuals to purchase insurance. Small and medium sized employers are unable to provide adequate insurance, small town providers are being driven out of business, and health care costs are rising at twice the rate of general inflation. Power over health care services and prices are being fought over by the providers and the managed care insurance industry. The shift in decision making to insurance companies means that it is no longer the physicians and medical staff who determine treatment but insurance company bookkeepers and bureaucrats.