As 2014 begins to unfold, it is becoming clear that the medical care industry is facing a crisis.
We have already reported about how many doctors are refusing to participate in the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges. But another unintended consequence of new medical care legislation is the refusal of nurses to comply with new mandatory flu vaccination requirements. With a nation-wide shortage in nurses already problematic long before Obamacare was implemented, things are only going to get worse.
Nurses across the United States are choosing to lose their jobs rather than submit to forced mandatory flu vaccinations. This began last flu season, in 2012, and we reported many stories of brave nurses standing up for their rights and refusing to submit to mandatory flu vaccinations as a requirement to keeping their jobs.
Unfortunately, many of our nation's best nurses were already lost at the beginning of the 2012-2013 flu season as new mandates in Obamacare kicked in, requiring medical care facilities to have a 90% compliance to the flu vaccine as a requirement to receive full reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid.
The trend towards losing nurses over the mandatory flu vaccine has continued this flu season, in 2013-2014. For example, Dreonna Breton, a registered nurse in Pennsylvania, lost her job recently due to refusing the vaccine on medical grounds. She is pregnant, and has a history of miscarriages. Her doctor advised her NOT to get the flu vaccine, but her hospital refused her exemption and fired her.
For those nurses who are granted exemptions to avoid the flu vaccine, they are forced to wear masks while at work, for the entire flu season. Since studies show that even those who are vaccinated can still pass on the influenza virus, and since the requirement to vaccinate 90% of medical care workers with the flu vaccine is a financial consideration for getting the full federal funds available for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, this requirement to single out those refusing vaccines is a clear case of discrimination and harassment.
Nurses across the country are gathering together on the Internet, such as the Nurses Against Mandatory Vaccines Facebook Page, and proudly displaying their masks as badges of honor in not giving in to intimidation and medical tyranny. They are some of the few honorable people left in the corrupt medical system.