NNU Statement on Non-Discrimination of Health Care Services at Faith-Based and Corporate Hospitals

May 14, 2019

National Nurses United calls on all hospitals, including those operated by faith-based institutions as well as other corporate hospital systems, to guarantee full health care services for all patients, including after mergers and acquisitions with other hospital systems or individual hospitals.
 
NNU strongly believes that health care is a human right. No patient should ever endure discrimination or denial of care based upon their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation and identity, or immigration status.
 
Those bedrock principles should apply to any faith-based health care institution or practitioner that would restrict or deny health care services to any patient based on religious convictions.
 
That standard must also apply to any health care institution that limits or denies health care services based on ability to pay or other corporate practices that impose or exacerbate disparities that disproportionately affect people based on their race, gender, immigration, or other social or economic factors.
 
For registered nurses in particular, patient advocacy is the hallmark of our profession. Public trust in registered nurses is premised on our bond with patients, and an expectation that we will always put the health and safety of our patients over all other considerations.
 
Any denial of health care services violates the long-held prescription that caregivers should do no harm. Further, it should also be an axiom that all health care institutions and practitioners provide all patients with informed consent and respect patients' choices for their care.
 
It is for these reasons, for example, that NNU opposes the Trump administration’s proposed final “conscience rule” in health care delivery that will pose a significant threat to women’s health and the fundamental principle of patient choice.
 
That rule also demonstrates the danger of unintended consequences of denial of health care services based on religious or personal convictions, such as restrictions on contraceptives that are not just intended to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, but are also used by many women to address an array of other critical health concerns, or refusal to administer vaccinations at a time of an outbreak of measles and the threat of the spread of other infectious diseases.
 
Similarly, NNU opposes corporate health care practices such as hospital closures, reductions in health care services, limits on patient mix, and outright patient dumping that have a disproportionate adverse impact on communities of color, women, and lower-income people.
 
NNU continues to campaign for the transformation of our health care system to one based on guaranteed care for all through a Medicare for All system that will be a major first step toward ending health care disparities and denials of care. That is also NNU’s bedrock principle.