California Nurses Association

RoseAnn DeMoro on the Robin Hood Tax, Single-Payer

From Moyers and Company – Bill talks to RoseAnn DeMoro, who heads the largest registered nurses union in the country, and led a Chicago march protesting economic inequality on May 18. DeMoro is championing the Robin Hood Tax, a small government levy the financial sector would pay on commercial transactions like stocks and bonds. The…

As Court Showdown Nears, Our Healthcare System Still a Mess

By Rose Ann DeMoro – With the approaching Supreme Court showdown on the President Obama’s 2010 health care law (the Affordable Care Act, modeled, of course, on Mitt Romney’s law in Massachusetts), the U.S. healthcare system remains a dysfunctional mess, as nurses bear witness to every day. In late March, the Court will devote six…

Nurses Support American Health Security Act of 2011

From National Nurses United – On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, at 10:30 a.m., EDT, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), will hold a joint news conference at the Senate Swamp to announce the introduction of the American Health Security Act of 2011 (the Act). The Act establishes a national healthcare program that…

Forbes 400 or the SiCKO 12?

By Donna Smith – It’s a club I will never be in. Michael Moore told us about them this week. The Forbes 400. The richest 400 people in America. They own more stuff and have more cash and assets than half of the rest of us (roughly 150,000,000+ people) combined. But I had to dig…

With the nurses on the road to Madison

Helen Redmond, a social worker in Chicago, describes the “festival of fighters” she encountered on a trip to Madison, Wis., with a delegation from National Nurses United. THE MOOD on the bus was jubilant and serious. National Nurses United (NNU) organized a group of union members to go to Wisconsin to support state workers in…

February Single-Payer Newsletter

We just sent out our latest email newsletter (see it here). If you’re not on our email list, you can sign up for them here. February’s single-payer newsletter includes these articles: Dr. King and Health Reform By Claudia Fegan, M.D. – “There are 50 million Americans who are uninsured. African Americans are represented disproportionately among…

Nurse Protest Prompts Blue Shield to Delay Rate Hike

By Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of National Nurses United – People power works, and not just in Egypt. Blue Shield of California today announced a 60-day reprieve for the unconscionable rate hike of up to 59 percent it intends to foist on individuals and families. The announcement coincided with announced plans by nurses, patients,…

Oh, For Civil Healthcare in America

by Donna Smith – Ah, we must be more civil. No more taunts. No more tirades. No more gun crosshair targets, no matter how innocently placed on our graphics (though I am not sure gun crosshairs are ever really innocent in placement). We’ll be more civil in our discourse. In light of the tragedy in…

Let’s stop pretending it was a government takeover of healthcare

By Deborah Burger for The Hill – If the Obama healthcare bill is just a “government takeover,” why are healthcare industry CEOs being rewarded with so much money? The alleged expropriation of healthcare by big government is, of course, a major story line of the right and the new leadership of the House which is…

Being SiCKO in a Tea Party Nation

By Donna Smith – RENO, Nevada — I ventured backward in my memories to the fall of 2006 and wondered what might have happened differently if the Tea Party ruled this nation. It’s not that I am thrilled with the current state of political reality, but I am worried that if the trend toward more…