Opinion: Want to end historic health care strikes? Fix a broken, outdated reimbursement model
Many of the conditions that threaten patient health and drive nurses to strike — or even quit — stem from an outdated reimbursement model.
History was made this month as more than 75,000 workers staged the largest health care strike to ever take place in the United States. The Kaiser strike is over, for now, but there is no clear resolution in place, and other strikes are still under way or on the horizon.
At the same time, we are in the midst of a nurse staffing crisis. About 800,000 nurses plan to leave the workforce by 2027, and more than half of newly graduated nurses are leaving the profession within two years. The reasons why this is happening have nothing to do with a lack of passion for the profession or care for patients. Rather, it has everything to do with poor working conditions that stem from an outdated reimbursement model for nursing services.
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