Remarks by
Barbara Blakeney, MS, APRN,BC, ANP
President, American Nurses Association
Press Conference on the Budget's Impact on Women and Families
March 17, 2004
Washington, DC

ANA nurse representatives joined with Democratic members of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues and women firefighters and police for a March 17 press conference aimed at exposing the devastating impact the Bush administration's FY 2005 budget will have on women and children.

Good morning and thank you Leader Pelosi and Representatives Slaughter, Solis, and Tubbs-Jones. I am Barbara Blakeney, President of the American Nurses Association; I am also a registered nurse with 30 years experience in patient care.

I am here today to urge Congress to save the insurance safety net for America's women and children. It is a national disgrace that there are nearly 44 million Americans living without health insurance coverage, including 8.5 million children. And those numbers are rising. Nurses see firsthand, every day, the consequences of living without health insurance: delayed treatment, sicker patients, worse outcomes.

Problems in state finances have resulted in unprecedented cuts to Medicaid programs and the State Children's Health Insurance Program - known as S-CHIP. Recent studies have shown that these rollbacks have already removed as many as 1.6 million low-income people from these insurance programs. Nearly half of those losing insurance coverage are children. In addition, nearly one in ten American women--and one-third of all poor women--are in jeopardy of losing their access to health care through the Medicaid program.

Yet, the Administration's budget proposal reduces net federal funding for Medicaid by nearly $1 billion in fiscal year 2005 and by nearly $16 billion over the next decade. The House budget resolution assumes that the Energy and Commerce Committee will cut Medicaid $2.2 billion over the next five years. In addition, the Administration's budget does not extend S-CHIP funds that, without such an extension, will revert to the federal Treasury. As a result, $63 million will expire from the S-CHIP program at the end of fiscal year 2005. This will cause about nine states to run out of S-CHIP funds in 2005.

Unless Congress acts now to shore up Medicaid and S-CHIP, these draconian cuts will swell the ranks of the uninsured. America's nurses urge Congress and the Bush Administration to act now to ensure that America's fragile insurance safety net is not harmed beyond repair.

ANA Media Contact: Cynthia Price, 202-651-7038

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The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million registered nurses (RNs) through its 54 constituent member associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

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