Zenei Cortez, RN, has been a working bedside nurse for 30 years and is a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses Organizing Committee and California Nurses Association…and we’re quite proud to say she’s the first Filipino to hold that office.

She takes on the Schwarzenegger-inspired healthcare deal in today’s San Francisco Chronicle with an oped called, “Hasty Health Care Deal Not Ready for Prime Time.”

While reading her words, remember the experience that Registered Nurses across this country share: every day they watch patients *with* health insurance go broke, and get sick because they can’t afford the medical treatment they are allegedly covered for.  This is a key reason RNs oppose health care “reform” built on padding forcing more patients into the arms of the insurers who messed things up in the first place.

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize for GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

In addition to providing the insurance companies with *BILLIONS* of dollars in new public subsidies and forced payouts from working- and middle-class patients, the proposed deal suffers from the following problems:

It’s equally evident what the deal won’t include:
— Limits – other than a vague reliance on the market which created the mess – on skyrocketing insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, hospital charges, doctor’s bills and other fees that are rising at double, triple or more the rate of inflation and increases in worker’s wages.
— Choice of doctor, hospital or other provider. Unlike Medicare, insurers or employers will continue to be able to restrict patients to their medical plan’s network or require costly additional payments to see other providers.
— An end to insurance industry control over basic decisions about your health. Insurers will still be able to block referrals to specialists, deny needed medical tests or access to the newest prescription drugs, and can still refuse to pay for care deemed “experimental” or “not medically necessary,” even when it is recommended by your doctor. 

And if you’ve been reading that you’ll be protected from runaway costs?  Uh…

The cost protections are a mirage. Many middle-income families will qualify for state tax credits to help pay for the insurance they are required to buy. But a tax credit hardly makes up for costly monthly premium payments and other fees.
Further, the proposed annual out-of-pocket limit of 6.5 percent in costs applies only to the barebones mandatory policy. Anyone seeking coverage that includes such essentials as dental, vision, mental health, long-term care, and other needed care will have to pay much more.
The likely result will be more consumer debt for medical bills; a great boon for the banks and credit-card companies but increased financial risk for Californians and an encouragement to self-ration needed care due to the prohibitive cost.

And we’re not the only ones who see the obvious comparisons with energy de-reg….remember that was supported by just about every lobbyist in Sacramento, especially those with ties to Enron:

A decade ago, there was also a consensus for energy deregulation. The result was blackouts, higher costs for consumers, a financial calamity for the state, and open thievery by Enron and other energy corporations.
We should learn from that experience. Rather than rush through an ill-conceived plan that primarily rewards the same insurance giants, let’s adopt a more commonsense step, expand children’s health coverage with federal funds now and get real, guaranteed health care reform done next year.

(Game on, I suppose. – promoted by Bob Brigham)

I hate to be melodramatic, but that’s pretty much what it comes down to.

At least according to today’s report finding that America is last among industrialized democracies in terms of infant mortality.  Because our healthcare system is set up to guarantee billions of dollars of profit to unnecessary insurance corporations, kids born here are more likely to die than they are in countries with guaranteed healthcare through the single-payer model.

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize for GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

One place this hits hard is Memphis, along with other cities with predominantly African-American populations.  African-American kids are two and a half times more likely than white kids to die in infancy.  Racism starts early, I guess.

This is the context in which Rudy Giuliani stated his big lie about cancer patients being better of in America than Europe.  He’s been proven wrong but refuses to apologize.  Kids are being killed on a daily basis by this system and he refuses to admit it because it doesn’t square with his bid for President.  Ezra Klein takes a look.

One of the real flashpoints for the battle over healthcare is in Kentucky and West Virginia, where nurses across the country are traveling to support their striking colleagues in the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System.  ARH is trying to bump up their profits by slashing the number of nurses caring for patients.  Profits over patients indeed.

In California, we’re working hard to stop a fake reform plan that includes an individual mandate, e.g. a requirement that every person purchase expensive, wasteful insurance products.  Fortunately, public opinion is turning against this nasty little brew cooked up by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  If we can break it here, we can break it anywhere!

(We haven’t front-paged anything about this today, probably out of sheer depression. So let this be a conduit for the discussion. Hopefully soon somebody will come by and tell us this is “the best we can do” and we should stop whining! Wouldn’t that be great? – promoted by David Dayen)

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee said today that it will oppose the latest healthcare plan proposed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, which would sentence patients to patients to forced insurance, threats to seize wages to pay the premiums of the very for-profit insurance companies who are speedily wrecking our health care system, and mandatory costs.

“As more details continue to emerge, it is apparent that this proposal is riddled with flaws that could exacerbate the healthcare crisis for countless numbers of California families,” said CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.

More details below, or visit the online home of the Nationanl Nurses Organizing Committee and California Nurses Association, and join the fight for guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model.

Here’s a look at the rest of the plan:

Individual mandate — forcing Californians to buy insurance

“No matter how you dress up this proposal it still amounts to a huge windfall for the insurance industry, millions of new customers who may get virtually nothing in return,” De Moro said. And, anyone who fails to buy insurance would face “the draconian threat” of having the cost of insurance deducted from their paychecks. “Punishing the uninsured by seizing their wages to pad insurance company profits is not healthcare reform.

No comprehensive coverage

The state’s Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board will establish the basic plan Californians would have to buy. But the plan is likely to only include a bare bones set of benefits, with probable high deductions and caps on coverage. All other medical care, such as dental, vision, mental health, long term care, and more would cost extra. “The likely result is that families with limited resources will self-ration rather than obtain needed medical care,” DeMoro said.

Affordability

DeMoro criticized claims that the bill meets affordability standards as “a sad hoax for Californians desperate for genuine healthcare coverage.”

1- Since the bill fails to set standards for basic plans, “it is likely families would be forced to effectively buy junk insurance, and have to spend thousands of dollars more for a long list of essential care needs.”
2- The plan fails to reign in skyrocketing insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or other rising costs. With costs continuing to escalate, there will be growing pressure on the MRMIB board to further erode the basic plan.
3- The supposed protection for middle income families is tax credits for the cost of buying the forced insurance. But tax credits only benefit those who can afford to buy insurance in the first place, and a once a year tax credit hardly makes up for costly monthly premium payments. The result will almost certainly be more credit card debt for medical bills; “a great boon for the banks and credit card companies but increased financial and health insecurity for Californians,” DeMoro said.
4- The proposed out-of-pocket limit of 6.5% in costs applies only to the bare bones mandatory insurance policy – those with more comprehensive plans will pay much more of their income.

Employer mandate

The new bill makes the extensive problems of the earlier versions by the legislature and the governor even worse, said DeMoro. Under the bill the maximum requirement for employers would be just 6.5 percent of payroll.

But, according to a June 2007 report by the California Healthcare Foundation, California employers in 2005 paid on average 10.4% — and unionized employers paid 14.5 percent of their payroll – for health care benefits.

Especially as there are no controls on rising premium costs, what the bill thus does is create a clear incentive for businesses to sharply erode existing plans or drop coverage entire, DeMoro said.

Unionized employers, for example, would save nearly $5,000 per employee to dump their current benefits and pay the new tax.  “Get ready for more strikes and other labor battles as workers struggle to maintain decent health coverage for their families,” DeMoro said.

Amidst the talk of the 2008 Senate races, Senator Barbara Boxer may be the most endangered incumbent in the class of 2010.

Polling came out this week finding that she narrowly trails Arnold Schwarzenegger in a projected matchup.

And now the health insurance industry has come up with a devilish scheme to prop up Arnold, increase their revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars, end the drive for genuine healthcare reform all in one fell swoop…with Boxer’s Senate seat being collateral damage in this scenario.

We’ll take a look below…cross-posted at daily kos, hence more background than Caliticsians might need!

It all hinges on the drive for health care reform in California.  There’s a fake debate going on right now, with insurers funding both sides.  Governor Arnold’s proposal is to require individuals to purchase expensive, wasteful, private insurance products.  Some Democrats in the legislature are countering with a proposal to force employers to purchase these same products.

Really, what’s not for insurers to like?

And now we are presented with a strange political kabuki between these two proposals.  Advocates on both sides are bashing the other-with arguments that would apply exactly equally to their own proposal.

So yesterday, in a bit of Capitol irony, Schwarzenegger’s health care plan was heard on Halloween-and it is scary and full of treats for insurance donors.  The charge that the legislators made against his plan?  It’s unaffordable!  But their counter-plan, for so-called employer mandates, is just as bad.  That’s the system we have now, but more.  And it’s a recipe out-of-control premiums, rising co-pays and deductibles, and an entire industry devoted to denial of care.  In short, we’d have the healthcare crisis we already do. 

We don’t know the third act of this drama.  But since the sides aren’t really too far apart, there’s a good chance that Schwarzenegger will compromise, look like a conquering hero, bring fake healthcare reform to California, and be all set up to turn the wonderful Barbara Boxer out of the Senate in 2010, with full complicity of a number of legislators who are heavy on the payroll of the big insurance corporations. 

George Skelton, dean of the California press, doesn’t think so, but neither he nor I are privy to the planning sessions that the insurers have convened between Arnold and their Democratic allies. 

The sad part is that after the legislature passed a guaranteed healthcare, single-payer bill last year, Arnold set the terms of this year’s debate by vetoing it.  Now the Capitol insiders are running around saying, “let’s get something, anything done so we look good.”  Malinda Markowitz, RN, a member of CNA/NNOC’s Council of Presidents, takes on this argument, saying:

Sadly, the main beneficiaries of a rushed “compromise” will be the same insurance companies that created the present crisis. They would harvest millions of new customers, with the government using its power and the public purse to further an insurance industry that will continue to be able to profiteer and deny care.
We don’t have to turn just to Massachusetts to see an example of how this can lead to disastrous public policy. A decade ago, the same “consensus” pushed the hurried passage of energy deregulation. That was followed by blackouts, skyrocketing energy costs for consumers, financial calamity for the state, and open thievery by Enron and other energy corporations.
Californians should demand that legislators pull the plug before we plunge into another disaster.

And in case we needed it, here’s one more reason to fight for genuine healthcare reform on the single-payer model: nearly two million veterans, who already face a number of challenges, have no coverage at all.  That’s just not right.

Trick or trick?

It’s not just that Rudy Ghouliani lied about the odds of patients in Britain surviving the kind of prostate cancer he had, in the controversial radio ad and message of the day he’s offering this Halloween.

It’s not just that Rudy asserts the big lie, that “we have the best healthcare system in the world,” better than the “socialized medicine” practiced by scary countries like Canada, Taiwan, France, England, etc.  Or even that he is willing to pimp out his own cancer diagnosis, while dismissing the healthcare inequality that shames our nation.

We’ll look at what’s really scary after the fold…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

What Rudy’s Halloween health care moment highlights is just how scared American patients should be of any of the Republican candidates, and their “it’s your problem” approach to healthcare.  The lot of them are against universal healthcare-let alone guaranteed healthcare. 

We’d be back to square one: the debate would not be over how to guarantee every American can access the health care they need-but whether poor people really need or deserve healthcare.  The debate would no longer be over whether to replace or regulate insurance companies-but instead how to ensure their ongoing profitability.  The debate wouldn’t be about we-it would just be about he.  We wouldn’t be on a path to guaranteed, single-payer care–we’d see be on a fast track to more pain, suffering, and heartache.

What may be even scarier than Rudy this Halloween?  The trend towards health care credit cards.  Already half of all bankruptcies are medical-related…now you can get all that and 19 per cent interest, also!

The good news is that the activist docs at Physicians for a National Health Program continue their sharp advocacy…and nurses striking in Appalachia over patient care issues are still on the picket line.  Go nurses!

The movement for guaranteed healthcare remains centered this week in California, as plans based on huge public subsidies for insurance corporations wend their way through a special session of the legislature.  The good news?  In-fighting has broken out between Governor Schwarzenegger and some of the Dems in the legislature, making it harder for them to reach the anti-patient compromise they’re shooting for.  RNs and patient advocates, among other groups, continue to monitor the situation and work to ensure that any bills hurting patients are defeated. 

Nationally, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report looks at the health care angles of the latest Republican Presidential debate.  Seems like they’re more interested in attacking Hillary Clinton than the healthcare crisis.

Clarence Page notes the central confusion over the SCHIP veto:

…the public has been very supportive of Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, for children whose family income is too high for Medicaid but too low to afford private coverage. Nevertheless, the president and his allies are reduced to reminding people that, “Pssst, it’s government health care so you’re supposed to be afraid of it.”

Hopefully, George Bush is right and S-CHIP is the first step towards guaranteeing all people, child or adult, have access to healthcare.

Right now, that’s only true in San Francisco.

Finally, as health insurance takes a bite out of wages, labor unions getting more involved in healthcare issues, and nurses in the Appalachian region Appalachian RNs are striking.  Go, nurses!

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

Great news for the single-payer movement: a majority of state federations of labor have now endorsed guaranteed, single-payer healthcare!  (Well, ok, 25 out of 50, but one of them is MD-DC.)  This follows on the heels of the recent announcement by the national AFL-CIO that they are pushing Medicare for All.  Do not discount how important this is…guaranteed, single-payer healthcare now becomes the only proposal with an organized, powerful constituency pushing for it. 

More labor endorsements are coming every day…Here’s what Oregon has to say:

The resolution continues, “. . . (T)he fundamental principal of the labor movement — that fragmentation leads to weakness while solidarity leads to strength — is a powerful tool that can be applied to create a consolidated, single payer American healthcare system.”

The Rockridge Institute and George Lakoff are also advocating for single-payer healthcare.  They’ve written a very interesting study on the “neo-liberal” biases inherent in how we talk about the debate.  Long story short: the conservatives don’t want you to think of a sick child, they want you to think about the problems with regulating industries like insurance.  Check out their new video…

Don’t forget, Al Gore’s also fighting for single-payer healthcare, and the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association are thanking him for it.

Elsewhere, it seems the public is quite ready to pay for SCHIP.

In case you missed it…HMOs in California?  Not doing such a great job.  But nurses could have told you that.

Finally, when conservatives attack single-payer healthcare, here’s the best they can come up with:

A shift to a single-payer system for all Americans would yield net savings in reported administrative costs of about $100 billion annually, or $2,100 in additional health care benefits for each of the 47 million individuals estimated as uninsured.

Everything else in the article is a bunch of lies written by corporate PR people, so be warned.

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

Nunez Forced to Recuse Himself from ALL Healthcare Votes??

In a stunning turn, it appears that Speaker Fabian Nunez must recuse himself from any votes on healthcare legislations-including any attempts to revive AB 8, the healthcare bill that Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed this month.

The Sacramento Bee reported this morning that Maria Robles, the wife of Fabian Nunez, has accepted a six-figure salary with Californians for Patient Care, a front group for the hospital industry that receives approximately 99% of its funding from the California Hospital Association.

We’ll take a look at this, and more from the drive for guaranteed, single-payer healthcare…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

Nuñez has already established a precedent for abstaining on issues affecting another of his wife’s employers. In 2006, Robles accepted a six-figure salary to work as a consultant for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.  As a result, Nuñez pledged not to vote on legislation that affected them that year.

Under California law, “no member of the legislature shall… receive or agree to receive, directly or indirectly, any compensation, reward or gift from any source, except the State of California” with very limited exceptions for certain speech fees and expense reimbursements (California Government Code 8920). This broad provision covers a spouse’s income, as Nunez’ prior actions with the Air Quality Management District demonstrate. Additionally, the law specifies that no legislator shall “participate, by voting or any other action, on the floor of either house, in committee, or elsewhere, in the passage or defeat of legislation in which he has a personal interest.”
I don’t have the penalties at hand for violating this law-add them in the comments if you, please.

But does this mean AB 8 is dead?  Has the insurance industry failed in their attempts to create a “forced market” for their products?

Interestingly, this couldn’t happen at a better time.  It appears that the coalitions of Sacramento insiders pushing the grand Nunez-Schwarzenegger compromise may be breaking apart.  Fabian’s backers are now apparently on the warpath against Arnold.  They’ve hired consultant Chris Lehane, a true-blue Democrat and Clinton/Gore/Clinton operative who has no interest in polishing Arnold’s resume as he heads into the possible 2010 showdown against Boxer.

Of course who knows what’s going to happen? Nunez’ wife is working for Arnold’s plan, and his allies are working against it. 

Meanwhile, Al Gore comes out swinging for single-payer healthcare, in a new Current video.  Go Al!

I strongly support universal, single-payer, government-provided-or, government-funded-healthcare….I think it ought to be a matter of right and our current system just doesn’t work, its way too expensive….And I think that to eliminate the incredibly ridiculous cost of all this unnecessary paperwork and different standards for different companies, it is time to have universal health insurance.

And check out the video of these beautiful, powerful, activist nurses on strike against Sutter.

Finally, superstar columnist David Lazarus continues his advocacy on behalf of single-payer healthcare.

To join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a “Medicare for All” or SinglePayer financing), visit GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.

The UAW’s strike against GM is not just about their members’ healthcare…but also about the healthcare of millions of people not represented by a powerful union.  We’ll look at the potential impact of this historic strike and what it means for workers and the nation that is healthcare increasingly becoming the central issue for labor, both in bargaining and activism…

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

You probably know that the UAW has called a national strike against GM.  This is the first auto strike since 1976, the first strike against GM since 1970…and the first strike since the AFL endorse a “Medicare for All” style guaranteed healthcare plan.

And what are they fighting for?

G.M., in return, had pushed for the creation of a trust that would assume responsibility for its $55 billion liability for health care benefits for workers, retirees and their families….Union officials criticized G.M. for continuing to pay bonus compensation to its executives, while pressing U.A.W. members to make concessions.

No one keeps the stats, but about 90 percent of strikes are caused by the issue of healthcare.  The labor movement remains at the heart of the movement to protect and expand access to healthcare for all people, while employers are looking to get out of the healthcare field.  It is cruel and short-sighted of employers to just want to drop benefits rather than look for solutions that are in everbody’s interests.  Don’t take my word for it.  Ask GM Canada:

Just two years ago, GM Canada’s CEO Michael Grimaldi sent a letter co-signed by Canadian Autoworkers Union president Buzz Hargrave to a Crown Commission considering reforms of Canada’s 35-year-old national health program that said, “The public healthcare system significantly reduces total labour costs for automobile manufacturing firms, compared to their cost of equivalent private insurance services purchased by U.S.-based automakers.” That letter also said it was “vitally important that the publicly funded healthcare system be preserved and renewed, on the existing principles of universality, accessibility, portability, comprehensiveness and public administration,” and went on to call not just for preservation but for an “updated range of services.” CEOs of the Canadian units of Ford and DaimlerChrysler wrote similar encomiums endorsing the national health system.

And guess what?  It’s only going to get worse.  Just like GM will try to dump their U.S. employees out of the healthcare system, and end their own interest in solving the healthcare crisis, many of the healthcare reform proposals being floated by politicians will encourage the same thing to happen. 

Let’s look at the emerging deal between Schwarzenegger and the legislature in California:

Employers spend between 12% and 15% of payroll on average for health care, and CNA fears either the 4% or 7.5% plan would encourage them to move to high-deductible insurance policies with limited services, Communications Director Chuck Idelson said.

“If you think we have a lot of labor strife now over health-care benefits, wait until this plan goes into effect,” Idelson said of the Democratic bill.

Unlike employers, labor unions, however, won’t give up the fight for guaranteed healthcare.  Why?  Because more and more employers think of Medicaid and charity care as their health benefit.  And now even healthcare workers are in danger of losing their healthcare. 

Strikes like the UAW’s will help us build momentum for guaranteed, single-payer healthcare-and force corporations to really grapple with the crisis.  The rapid unionization of America’s RNs will also provide the movement with a committed, organized, knowledgable group of activists who are personally committed to improving patient care. 

As UAW is standing up to GM, California’s nurses will take the lead in standing up to the fake healthcare reform bill that is being pushed by a “coalition of the willing” Sacramento insiders.  Healthcare hero Sen. Sheila Kuehl, author of the groundbreaking single-payer bill SB 840, gives an update on the strategy:

  “I continue to believe that the movement that’s been building for single payer, a movement that has seen support for a single payer universal health care system more than double over the last six months alone, will continue to build in ’08 in’09 in 2010,” Kuehl said. “Then, with a new governor, perhaps there might finally be a chance to get a signature on the bill that is actually the best solution for businesses, for employees, and for all the people in California. Because if you take the insurance companies out of the system, and they are the only entity that adds no value at all to the provision of health care, the overall costs for health care in California drop $19 billion in the first year alone, simply because we’re finally not paying their inflated overhead and profit.” 

And finally, Zenei Cortez, RN, a member of the Council of Presidents of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee issued the following statement on the UAW strike:

America’s registered nurses recognize that the UAW is standing up not just for their own healthcare-but for the healthcare of all our patients.  The California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee strongly supports their efforts, and will continue to work to see guaranteed healthcare won for autoworkers and everyone else in this nation.

To join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a “Medicare for All” or SinglePayer financing), visit GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.