AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka amplified his call for a politically independent labor movement Tuesday and said unions too often are holding "a canceled check" after Election Day. —The Hill, 06/07/11 More »
Nurses are rallying in Washington, DC, Tuesday to bring attention to average Americans' healthcare hardships, saying the economic downturn has resulted in a healthcare emergency for many in this country. —HealthLeaders Media, 06/07/11 More »
Blue Shield of California today unveiled a pledge to limit its profits to 2 percent a year and give back anything over that amount to its health care providers and policyholders. —San Francisco Chronicle, 06/07/11 More »
National Nurses United, the country's largest union and professional association representing registered nurses, is launching a campaign to reverse national priorities and policies that have put the interests of Wall Street ahead of the crisis facing American families today, the union announced June 6. —Bureau of National Affairs, 06/07/11 More »
Registered nurses at Alvarado Hospital plan to hold a candlelight vigil from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. today, as the hospital and nurses’ union enter their fourth month of contract negotiations. —San Diego Union Tribune, 06/01/11 More »
The 700-member Crozer-Chester Nurses Association voted to authorize a strike this week in the event bargaining with Crozer-Keystone Health System officials breaks down. —Delaware County Times, 05/28/11 More »
They're not buying it. Most Americans say they don't believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows. —Associated Press, 05/23/11 More »
Vermont is about to accomplish something the federal government couldn't. Once Gov. Peter Shumlin signs a bill on May 26, the state will be on track to having a single-payer health care system. —NPR, 05/22/11 More »
Ask the voters and they'll tell you: Social Security cuts are off the table when it comes to cleaning up the budget mess in Washington. —Talking Points Memo, 05/22/11 More »
Unemployment is up. Joblessness has increased for African Americans. Black women are being hit especially hard. The question now is whether the people running the country really care? And if they do, why are they avoiding the subject? —BlackCommentator.com, 05/20/11 More »
Back in 2007, the Mackinac Center produced a report about how the state could address its budget deficit without raising taxes. As you might expect from a rightwing think tank, their solution was all cuts. Some of the cuts involved programs for which the state receives matching dollars from the federal government and some of the suggestions like cutting health care benefits for teachers were entirely unrealistic (teacher benefits are a product of negotiations at the local level). —Michigan Morning Sun, 05/20/11 More »
House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan proposes to undermine the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, with an eye toward enriching the insurance companies that so generously fund his campaigns. —The Nation, 05/18/11 More »
A nearly three-year-old campaign to preserve San Leandro Hospital's emergency room was re-energized Tuesday night when local leaders publicly unveiled a plan to merge its administration with Hayward's St. Rose Hospital. —San Leandro Patch, 05/18/11 More »
More than one in four U.S. emergency departments were closed in the past two decades, forcing the nation’s poor and elderly to seek care in fewer, more crowded facilities, researchers found. —Bloomberg News, 05/17/11 More »
U.S. healthcare is so expensive that records are broken even when cost increases slow. According to a new report by Milliman, a global consulting and actuarial firm, the total cost of healthcare for the average family of four, if covered by a preferred provider organization, is now a record $19,393. —Hunffington Post, 05/16/11 More »
The California Nurses Association filed a grievance last week with St. Joseph Health System-Humboldt County on behalf of several registered nurses at its Eureka hospital whom the CNA claims have been affected by mold found growing in the new tower, still under construction, as well as in the Progressive Care Unit in an existing building connected to the tower. —North Coast Journal, 05/12/11 More »
By Senator Bernie Sanders — The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee healthcare as a right to its people. Meanwhile, we spend about twice as much per capita on healthcare and, in a wide number of instances, our outcomes are not as good as others that spend far less. —The Guardian/UK, 05/10/11 More »
House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan [1], R-Wisconsin, proposes to undermine the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, with an eye toward enriching the insurance companies that so generously fund his campaigns. —The Nation, 05/10/11 More »
Birthing Center nurses at Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital are publicly opposing plans to close labor and delivery services. —Auburn Journal, 05/07/11 More »
Registered nurses at Children's Hospital Oakland walked off their jobs Thursday morning in the first day of a five-day strike that centers on disputes over health care benefits and other proposed changes to their contract. —San Francisco Chronicle, 05/06/11 More »
