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.