On the Front Lines of Reform

Tom Connelly has treated the critically ill for more than 30 years. And he’s frustrated by the number of patients who end up in emergency rooms for primary treatment.

Tom Connelly

Photo Credit: Joe Weidner

Tom Connelly has treated the critically ill for more than 30 years. And he’s frustrated by the number of patients who end up in emergency rooms for primary treatment. That’s because they don’t have health insurance, which would give them access to preventive care.

“If Congress could see what I see every day, there would be no debate about the need to pass a strong health care reform bill,” says Connelly, a critical care nurse at the Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, Ohio, and president of Local 2026 (Council 8). “Those of us on the front lines of the health care crisis have watched costs soar out of control and out of reach for too many Americans.”

Mary Gallagher, a psychiatric nurse and a member of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees (NAPE)/AFSCME, Local 61, agrees. A case manager at the Lincoln Regional Center, Gallagher recalls a schizophrenic patient. “She knew she had problems because she had a hard time keeping a job,” Gallagher says. “But the shame and stigma of mental illness kept her from seeking help. By the time she came for treatment, she was already an acute case. She shuffled in and out of the hospital three or four times while struggling to hold on to a job.”

Even if the woman had insurance, Gallagher says, it would have been inadequate. Most insurance companies only cover five days of inpatient care per year. “The mentally ill take two to three weeks to be stabilized,” Gallagher explains. “When insurance benefits run out, patients can either attempt to seek treatment in an overcrowded county clinic or discontinue treatment, which is usually the case.”

To both Connelly and Gallagher, the need for reform has never been greater. “A public option in the health care system will allow the mentally ill and others to get affordable and adequate health insurance, which will give them consistent care when they need it—not when the situation has become an emergency,” Gallagher adds.