Thousands of RNs represented by the California Nurses Association will walk off the job October 10 through 12 in a strike against the mammoth Sutter Healthcare Corporation.  This is the largest strike by nurses in this country for at least a decade and the stakes are high.

This Sutter strike affects 5,500 nurses at 16 different facilities.  But it also affects each and every one of us.  Nurses are walking the picket line for the dream of better health care in this country.  Don’t take it from me-listen to the striking nurses in their own words in this video.

You know how you read stories about people victimized by the healthcare industry-[ http://juliepierce-s… say Julie Pierce]-and your eyes tear up and your heart gets heavy?  Registered nurses are on the front line of this crisis every single day and live these stories every day…watching innocent people die because their insurance claim was denied, because they couldn’t afford insurance mark-ups, because they didn’t get preventative medicine.

Sutter Healthcare is the “poster child” for cruel hospital chains.  They have figured out the scam…maximize hospital profits by slashing patient care to the bone.  Sutter takes literally hundreds of millions of dollars of profits out of the healthcare system each year.  Sutter shut down community hospitals that don’t achieve their profit margin-i.e., those serving sub-premium patients, who are sometimes known as poor people.

One of Sutter’s favorite ways to deny care for profit is by routine understaffing of their nurses.  Study after study has shown that nurse staffing is directly tied to patient mortality…if you leave patients alone in a bed, bad things happen to them.  If you make sure patients have access to nursing care, good things happen to them.

Unfortunately, at Sutter, patients are ringing their call button and there is just no nurse on shift to care for them.

That’s deadly for the patients-and heartbreaking for the nurses.  Jan Rodolfo, a pediatric oncology RN at Summit Hospital in Oakland, put it this way: “We are deeply concerned about the quality of care and the availability of patient services in communities that have long supported Sutter hospitals.  Inadequate staffing is a persistent problem at Sutter facilities. No one understands what staffing we need to provide safe patient care better than bedside nurses.”

Other hospital chains are not abusive this way.  Other hospital chains listen to their nurses and write patient safety into the contract.  But not Sutter, and 6,000 nurses have had enough and won’t take it anymore. 

You can help.  Call Sutter’s CEO Pat Fry and tell him you support the nurses-and safe care for all their patients: 916-286-6752.

And just in case you think that a major nurses strike will slow down our national advocacy on behalf of single-payer healthcare….Don’t worry.

…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.

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.

Whatever you do don’t be ladylike:

Barbara Ehrenreich was channelling Mother Jones when she gave this advice to 1,000 nurse activists gathered in California this week, but she really didn’t have to worry. Like her the nurses were channeling the famous labor leader, as the emotional gathering marked the true birth of a national nurses movement, whose women (and men) have made “elegant militancy” their calling card. 

We’ll take a look at some of the glowing press coverage and consider the implications for the important healthcare battles in California and the nation after the flip.
…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.

Here’s the deal: NNOC/CNA is the fastest-growing union in America, and we are dedicated to improving patient care with the kind of guaranteed, single-payer healthcare succeeding in nearly every other industrialized democracy.  In order to make that happen we aim to continue our rapid expansion, and nurses around the country are responding to our themes of patient care and nurse activism, and joining the union. 

In the words of Barbara Ehrenreich:

“Registered nurses have got to be at the forefront of the struggle for a just and egalitarian healthcare system in this country for the simple reason that you are the last generalists in the healthcare field…as well as the strongest, boldest, loudest voice for genuine healthcare reform in this country today.”

Unfortunately, RNs have never had a say at the national level, or any kind of real representation.  That’s why NNOC/CNA’s rapid growth is so important.  Over the last ten years, we’ve grown 350%.  Since 1992, we’ve gone from 17,000 members in California alone to 75,000 members in all 50 states, with nurses now active in numerous healthcare struggles, as well as sponsoring the key single-payer bills.

That’s why Media News Group says,

When the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee opens its convention today in Sacramento, it’ll do so as a darling of the national labor movement.

At a time when labor unions seem to be on the ropes …the CNA/NNOC’s explosive growth seems almost miraculous.
How’d this happen?
“We stopped looking at our role as patient advocates solely at the bedside,” CNA president Deborah Burger RN said Friday. “We’re patient advocates for the entire society, for the community as a whole. 

The LA Times suggests the impressive organizing success fuels the guaranteed healthcare movement:

From intensive care wards to the halls of Congress, they’re exerting growing influence over hospital practices and patient treatment. With the clout they’ve gained through unionization, they’ve raised their incomes and their profession’s profile.

Now they’re lobbying for a radical change to the country’s healthcare system, starting in California.

On Monday, hundreds of members of the California Nurses Assn. marched on the Capitol in Sacramento and pledged to continue to campaign for universal healthcare coverage.

The nurses actually marched *into* the Capitol Monday to protest an insurance-industry-friendly fake healthcare reform proposal, with 1000 nurses participating in the kind of dramatic protest not seen there in recent years.  Pics here.  One reporter called them “militants in tennis shoes.”

Why are we fighting so hard?  Because the insurance industry is about to see a bill passed in California that purports to reform healthcare but will in fact only entrench the failed, for-profit insurance companies right in the heart of our healthcare service. 

It is a concept that has to end here.  Governor Arnold and Assembly Speaker Nunez have between them taken almost $1 million from the insurance industry.  As a result, they’ve set the terms of the debate thus: should employers be forced to purchase expensive, wasterful, corporate health insurance for their employees or should individuals be forced to purchase it on their own?  The problem is neither choice is successful, and each will only delay the arrival of genuine healthcare reform.  We know how to fix this mess; we just need the political will.

The good news?  We’ve likely going to the ballot.  The public trusts nurses, likes unions, and looks to nurse unions for leadership on healthcare questions.  Our polling shows that the legislature’s “healthcare reform plan,” AB 8, starts at 49% support, but drops to just 25% when the public finds out nurses are opposed to it.  We led the defeat of Arnold’s anti-worker ballot measures in 2005 and we’ll do the same thing in 2008.

We’ll still have a healthcare crisis once the fake-reform ballot measure is defeated.  But we will have put the insurance industry in their place, taught politicians they need to grow spines, and further built the national movements of nurses and patients…setting the stage for day we can end the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted on millions of patients by this cruel, broken system.

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.

1000 Registered Nurses storming the Capitol and clogging its halls in one of the most dramatic and militant protests in recent history was not enough to stop Sacramento politicians from selling out patients and rewarding their insurance industry donors with a major financial boon, in the latest step of a complex healthcare dance orchestrated by and for Governor Schwarzenegger

We’ll take a look at what it means for the drive for guaranteed healthcare nationally over the flip, but first take a look at these pictures from inside the Capitol this morning. 

…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.

The inside-the-Capitol rally was amazing.  While the Democratic leaders of the Assembly and the Senate voted to keep the health insurance companies in the business of profiting from care, a beautiful sea of hands-on caregivers chanted in the hallways, their pleas bouncing off the walls and permeating the entire building.  “Don’t sell out our patients! Single-payer now!”

But for today it wasn’t enough.  Here’s the deal: because they had to do “something” the California Senate just voted to send Governor Arnold a pro-insurance faux healthcare reform bill that nurses and healthcare activists have been trying hard to kill. 

Arnold will veto it–despite the fact that it is based on and basically similar to his own proposal.  Each bill will send more patients to the insurance industry, giving them more revenue and influence over medical decisions…meaning each bill will expose more patients to runaway costs, and force them to beg for healthcare from corporations that make money by denying it.

Here’s the good news: After vetoing the Senate’s bad bill, Arnold will call a special session to push his own bad bill, the next step in the process he’s choreographing.  This will give nurses and patients one more chance to convince politicians to do the right thing…and fix the healthcare crisis by getting rid of the insurance companies

Healthcare hero Sheila Kuehl explained her opposition to both versions of the insurance-centered bill:

Senator Kuehl’s statement in opposing AB 8 was generous in her praise for those who had worked on the bill and their improvements to it. But in the end, she told the Senate that she had learned of the problems caused by any approach that retains insurance. She said that, “For those of you who vote for the bill, I understand you are voting your hopes, knowing it will be vetoed by the Governor.”
Using the analogy of the Titanic for the current health care system, she said she had criticized some measures as rearranging the deck chairs, but that there has been a real attempt in AB 8 to “turn the direction of the ship.” But she said the Titanic was sunk because the ship had tried to turn rather than “facing the iceberg head on” which would have at least kept it afloat longer and saved more lives. I have no idea of the facts about the Titanic, but she made her point.

A former legislator-turned-progressive activist, Hannah-Beth Jackson, summarized the problems with both the Schwarzenegger and legislature’s approaches:

Schwarzenegger is insisting that everyone have health insurance. This is NOT universal healthcare, it is universal insurance- whether people can afford it or not. This deference to the insurance industry is maddening for those who realize the private companies are a major part of the problem and need to come out of the equation completely.

What does it mean nationally?  If the insurance industry can write the rules for healthcare reform in California, they can in many other states around the country as well.  We have to block it here.

Just for fun, here’s an article from this morning calling the California Nurses Association, the “darlings of the national labor movement.”

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.

Speaker Fabian Nunez went to the LA Times editorial board last week to tell them about the big plans he and Arnold Schwarzenegger are dreaming up: to take their hasty, half-cooked, gift-to-the-insurance-industry-masquerading-as-a-healthcare-reform-plan straight to the voters as a ballot initiative next year.

Not so fast.  A new poll release today by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee finds considerable unease among the California public over the Schwarzenegger-Nunez plan.  Voters don’t want a bad bill just for the sake of having a bill; they don’t want a bill born from a dirty political deal; and they don’t want a bill that simply won’t work.  All of which adds up to trouble for the healthcare deal currently known as AB 8.  It would likely start out under 50% in the polls, and face an uphill struggle that would only get harder as voters learn about the opposition from the state’s nurses and healthcare activists.

The tragedy here is that these politicians are playing games while we have a historic opportunity to rid our healthcare system of the insurance industry that is poisoning it.  Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 is based on the very systems that are succeeding in every other industrialized democracy in the world. 

This is a high-stakes issue not just for patients in California, but also for the future direction of the movement for healthcare reform around the country.  Fortunately, voters have smelled the rat.…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.

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner surveyed 700 voters on behalf of the California Nurses Association about the Schwarzenegger-Nunez healthcare plan.  The toplines:

More than two-thirds of California voters – a margin of 68 percent to 25 percent – said they prefer “making sure we pass healthcare reform that gets it right and improves the system, and not take the risk of passing bad legislation.”

More worrisome for the prospects of a ballot initiative:

In the Greenberg Quinlan poll, when provided a favorable description of AB 8, a plurality, but not a majority, of voters said they supported the bill, by a 49-40 percent.
But once voters were told of serious flaws in the bill, opposition rose to 50 percent while support fell to just 35 percent. And, when told it was opposed by nurses, opposition climbed further to 57 percent while support fell to just 25 percent.

Any ballot initiative that starts under 55% support is likely to lose.  But if voters had the option of voting for real reform, things might be different:

By contrast, by a huge margin of 70 percent to 21 percent, voters said they would be willing to pay more for a health plan that covered everyone, had no co-pays or deductibles, wasn’t attached to one’s job, and guaranteed choice of doctor or hospital. That’s the approach reflected in Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 single-payer bill.
Further, that approach won support among voters across political lines, by Democrats, 77-13 percent; independents, 72-20 percent; and Republicans 60-32 percent.

And, of course, ethical concerns are key here:

Two-thirds of the voters, 67 percent, said they would have a less favorable opinion of their legislator if they learned he or she was supporting AB 8 “for political reasons” to seek Gov. Schwarzenegger’s backing for the term limits initiative, to 15 percent who said they would have a more favorable opinion.

In case you missed the LA Times story Saturday about the grand Nunez-Scwharzenegger deal here it is:

“I think we’re on the verge of doing something huge,” Nuñez told The Times’ editorial board Friday.

The plan would require all Californians to have insurance and would give subsidies to those unable to afford coverage. It would also address the problems of the private insurance market

In other words, Californians would be driven into the arms of the for-profit insurance industry exposed in Sicko.  And despite the line above, there is no way to make this equation affordable-as the Massachusetts mandate mess made clear.

And don’t miss healthcare hero Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s explanation for why magical thinking won’t fix our healthcare mess.

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.

Do not underestimate the power of the labor movement’s recent endorsement of a “Medicare for all,” guaranteed healthcare system…this labor day the AFL CIO will work to turn its 10 million members into 10 million healthcare activists.  Yep, that’s a lot of folks…and they can have a huge impact.  They’ll be joined by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.  We’ll take a look at this below, along with the burgeoning healthcare CREDIT crisis, the new healthcare census data, and the good news from California as Schwarzencare is on life support…The national fight for healthcare is heating up, just as we appear to be blocking the insurance industry proposals flying around Sacramento.

…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.

10 million organized advocates is just what this healthcare crisis needs.  From the AFL:

We are ready to act on our belief that in America, no one should go without health care.

And yes, it will continue into 2008:

Americans are ready for real change, and union members will make the 2008 elections a mandate on health care. We will hold candidates for office at every level accountable to progressive reform and elect a president and a Congress pledged to get the job done.

Joining this campaign are nurses from across the country, through the NNOC/CNA:

“Polls show that healthcare is the top domestic priority for Americans with more and more families struggling with health insecurity and fears for the future,” noted CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, a national Vice President of the AFL-CIO and a member of its Healthcare Reform Policy Committee.

CNA/NNOC, DeMoro said, “will work actively with other AFL-CIO unions on the campaign and press the issue with legislators and with the 2008 Presidential and Congressional candidates. CNA/NNOC recently ran a series of ads in Iowa, urging top Democrats to support a Medicare for all approach, which the Washington Post called one of the “winners” of a recent Democratic debate in Iowa.

Meanwhile, a new Kaiser Family Foundation reinforces the point that voters want genuine healthcare reform, now.

The New York Times reminds us why we fight:

millions of consumers have arranged financing through more than 100,000 doctors and dentists that offer a year or more of interest-free monthly payments…as the price of health care continues to rise and big lenders pursue new areas for growth, this type of medical financing has become one of the fastest-growing parts of consumer credit, led by lending giants like Capital One and Citigroup and the CareCredit unit of General Electric.

Good news!  Schwarzencare in California is wounded and dying…denying insurance companies the chance to seek their talons deeper into our medical system.  In the words of healthcare hero Sen. Sheila Kuehl:

While the governor and Democratic leaders insist they want a deal on health care, one lawmaker has concluded that failure might be the best option.  “I hope that none of these ill-conceived, quickly thrown together plans will pass this year,” said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the Santa Monica Democrat who chairs the Senate Health Committee and advocates a single-payer system. “Because really, that is not good for California.”

And the Sac Bee notes that the more Schwarzenegger and other politicians hustle for their insurance industry donors…the more voters support guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other political leaders have been telling Californians for the past eight months that the state’s health care delivery system is broken….A new statewide poll indicates that the message has resonated strongly, but ironically, voters aren’t embracing the relatively moderate approaches that Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders propose and are leaning, instead, toward a state-managed “single-payer” system that he has rejected. 

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.

A new Field poll today in California shows voters choosing a single-payer healthcare plan over the insurance-driven proposals supported by Governor Arnold and his Democratic allies.

The finding is in line with past research finding voters way ahead of politicians on the issue of guaranteed healthcare.  The timing on this poll, however, could not have been better for healthcare advocates, as the California budget just got passed and Governor Arnold, his Democratic helpers, and their insurance buddies are about to try to shove a regressive healthcare measure through the legislature.  Their plan just got harder.

We’ll take a look at this and more, 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.

Tom Chorneau in the San Francisco Chronicle:

As voter dissatisfaction with the state’s health care system grows, increasing interest is emerging in moving to a state-run, single-payer program, according to a Field Poll released today.

For years, a single-payer system had been the favorite of a small but loyal minority, but the new poll shows that 36 percent of California voters now favor replacing the current employer-based system with one operated by the state – a jump of 12 percent since December.

Meanwhile, the number of voters who want to make reforms within the framework of the current system has dropped from 52 percent in December to 33 percent in August.

Mike Zapler in the Mercury News notes:

Ironically, the drumbeat of attention on health care this year, fueled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other would-be reformers, seems to have dampened support for the one approach to change that had majority backing last year: shoring up the current insurer-based system. That solution, which is favored by the governor and calls for shared responsibility among government, employers and individuals, is now favored by just one-third of voters, down from 52 percent in December.

Call it the Michael Moore effect.  Sicko drew unprecedented attention to the problem of for-profit insurers…and now legislators want to expend the reach, customers, revenue, and medical influence of these same movie villains?  Thumbs down!

A Bureau of National Affairs article today (sub. req’d.) updates the latest backroom maneuvering on AB 8, which is the legislative offer to Governor Arnold:

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–“Play or pay” health care legislation authored by California’s Democratic legislative leadership was amended Aug. 20 to move up by one year, to Jan. 1, 2009, the proposed date that employers would be required to offer health coverage or pay 7.5 percent of payroll into a state-run purchasing pool .

The health care bill, A.B. 8, amended the same day lawmakers reconvened after a month-long summer recess, is pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee. It must clear both houses of the Legislature by Sept. 14, the last day of the regular legislative session. 

One problem with making this the centerpiece of a healthcare reform initiative?  It is blatangly, obviously, blindingly illegal-and will be tossed out of by the courts faster than you can say Erisa. 

So why put it in there?  To give the appearance of standing up on behalf of patients-while distracting attention from the other provisions in the law.  The other elements of this plan?  Expanding some public health programs while pushing some half-baked insurance “reforms” that will just lead to more paperwork…and more insurance overhead.

That’s it!

Here is a recent  background column from Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s office about the various proposals being thrown out as road-blocks to her single-payer plan, which has the big advantages of being the only plan that will actually work, as well as being the only one with a solid constituency (of healthcare reformers and a growing number of labor unions) pushing for it.

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.

Did CNA just win a presidential debate?  The Washington Post thinks so.  We’ll take a look and more, 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.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the Washington Post called my little union, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, the “winners” of Sunday’s Presidential debate for our pro-guaranteed healthcare reform ads we ran and the National Journal lauded the ads for returning the problem of health insurance to the primary.  It’s not going to go away, and whoever the Democratic candidate is will have to decide: are you with insurers or patients (and labor)?

Around the webs, Cervantes looks at the economic argument for guaranteeing healthcare with single-payer financing, while In These Times looks at the momentum in Wisconsin for such a program.

Meanwhile, David Sirota notes the Bush administration threatens to retaliate against middle-class families who use government-sponsored healthcare through the S-Chip program.

And America’s war on Indians continues, this time through inadequate healthcare.

Finally, an editorialist at the San Jose Mercury News wonders how long we have to wait for single-payer?

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.

George Bush has spoken: no guaranteed healthcare, not for kids, not for nobody.  Thank you Mr. Bush for putting your unpopularity behind the private insurance sector–just as their “individual mandate” laws in Massachusetts are running into trouble.  Bush’s veto provides the single-payer movement with the greatest strategic opening in memory.

All this and more in today’s Guaranteed Healthcare Update, 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.

It was on ideological grounds that George Bush vetoed the expansion of Medicaid to more kids: “My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you’re really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.”

We have the least popular President in a generation putting his moral weight behind the private insurance companies—and opposing the idea of society guaranteeing healthcare to all kids, and adults.

In the words of Pink, thank you, Mr. President.  This is our opportunity to sharply frame the debate: throw patients to the insurance industry wolves or fight for guaranteed healthcare?  Trust in George Bush and Blue Cross…or the medical systems working in every other industrialized nation in the world?  The more nurses, patients, and other guaranteed healthcare advocates can point out the links between Bush and the private insurance industry, the better off our movement is.  It’s a tragic veto, but a strategic gift we should all exploit.

Speaking of wolves, count Ron Wyden in: “’We’re right at the cusp of an ideological truce on health care,’ declares a beaming Ron Wyden.”  His truce is a massive expansion of the role of private insurers through a legal mandate to become their customer.  In other words… to the ideology of George Bush and Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ironically, the original individual mandate bill, RomneyCare in Massachusetts, is having trouble and legislators are rushing to tinker.  The big problem? “Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray recently warned: ‘If we do not constrain health-care costs, the system we worked so hard to create and implement will collapse.’”  It is, of course, impossible to make the economics of healthcare work when you use 30% of care dollars to prop up an unnecessary private insurance sector middleman.  That’s why health care providers in Mass. are leading the fight against the program, with a petition saying, “the state is offering plans with skimpy coverage and little real health security…”

Elsewhere, Larry Summers shares a dark vision of how we’ll get to guaranteed healthcare: “Incrementalism is not enough, we need full and fundamental reform. But I suspect that Congress will do incremental reform for a while until it fails, and crisis forces radical change.”  Let’s work to skip the even-worse crisis part, because that’s a code word for patient suffering.

Finally, medical students are among the nation’s most committed healthcare reformers, and one drew up this great animation on single-payer.

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