Capitol Connection

Nurses Experience Advocacy in Action at 2012 NIWI

In late Feb­ru­ary, ONS par­tic­i­pated in the annual Nurse in Wash­ing­ton Intern­ship pro­gram. Mul­ti­ple, national nurs­ing orga­ni­za­tions bring a few of their respec­tive mem­bers to Wash­ing­ton for this three-​​day con­fer­ence, teach­ing, net­work­ing, and advo­cat­ing on Capi­tol Hill for impor­tant fed­eral issues rel­e­vant to all nurses.

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Cancer and Nursing Programs See Increased Funding in 2013

In Feb­ru­ary, Pres­i­dent Obama released his fis­cal year 2013 bud­get. It arrived at the doors of Con­gress with sup­port but also con­cern regard­ing the spend­ing increases and cuts. Agen­cies that ONS is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in sur­vived, although the greater health com­mu­nity would have liked a larger invest­ment in the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices (HHS).

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State Insurance Exchanges Must Provide Essential Health Benefits

In Decem­ber 2011, the U.S. Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices announced that the Afford­able Care Act’s state exchange pro­grams must pro­vide health insur­ance options to indi­vid­u­als, defined by a bench­mark approach akin to a typ­i­cal employer plan.

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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Case on Affordable Care Act

As we set­tle into another major elec­tion year, many leg­isla­tive issues per­tain to ONS’s Health Pol­icy Agenda, but none as impor­tant as the next steps in the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act, which will take full effect begin­ning in 2013. In the mean­time, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a land­mark case next month about the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ity of the act, and its deci­sion will have last­ing effects—some antic­i­pated, oth­ers unforeseen.

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Obama Authorizes FDA to Address Drug Shortage

On Octo­ber 31, 2011, Pres­i­dent Obama issued an exec­u­tive order, Reduc­ing Pre­scrip­tion Drug Short­ages. Exec­u­tive orders are pres­i­den­tial reg­u­la­tions that give gov­ern­ment offices or agen­cies admin­is­tra­tive author­ity to inter­pret and imple­ment pro­vi­sions of the con­sti­tu­tion, law, or a treaty.

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