During a speech to about 80 Iowa nurses Friday, gubernatorial candidate Tom Vilsack said lawmakers must turn to health care workers for advice when making decisions on health care issues.

Vilsack, the Democratic candidate in the state’s governor race, gave the keynote address at the Iowa Nurses’ Association convention at the Scheman Building.

The association has given Vilsack its official endorsement.

Vilsack said government officials should learn from health care workers what their priorities should be.

“Policy makers must turn to you, who are on the front lines, for advice, for knowledge,” he said.

Among the health care initiatives Vilsack discussed, he said instating a patients’ bill of rights would be his first priority if elected into office. He said he wanted to put patients on a “level playing field” with health care officials.

Another item Vilsack discussed was providing health care for children.

“This is unconscionable that we have still left 21,000 children without health care insurance,” he said. “It is time for our state to ensure that every child has access to health care.”

Several school districts across the state have cut their public nurses and health officials when faced with tight budgets. Vilsack said 36 percent of Iowa’s school space currently violates health and safety codes.

“When we don’t invest in health care, essentially what happens is that it doesn’t mean that kids don’t get sick,” he said. “It means they don’t get the care they need as quickly as they should.”

Absence of public health care in schools costs money in emergency room care and hurts students when they miss school, Vilsack said.

He also listed nursing homes and a crackdown on the tobacco industry as priorities. Vilsack criticized his opponent, Republican candidate Jim Ross Lightfoot, for not taking a hard-line stance on the tobacco industry.

“[I will] strengthen the hand of our attorney general in trying to hold [the tobacco] industry accountable for what it has done, through Medicare and Medicaid,” Vilsack said.

“My party’s platform does not read as Jim Ross Lightfoot’s does, that health care is a privilege and not a right. How does a child earn that privilege?”