News | National Nurses United

Why the Future of Health Care May Be on the Line With Prop. 30

There is a hidden risk buried inside Proposition 30 that goes far beyond cuts to education, according to Hope Richardson, policy analyst for the California Budget Project. If the initiative doesn't pass on Nov. 6, she said, it's true that a series of cuts go into effect that would take billions of dollars out of education funding in California. "Most of the trigger cuts are to education," Richardson said. —California Healthline, 10/04/12 More »

California, Medicare For All News

Proposition 39 Endorsed by California Nurses Association

SACRAMENTO -- The Yes on Proposition 39 campaign announced today that the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA) has endorsed Proposition 39, the November ballot measure that will close an unfair corporate tax loophole that has been costing California $1 billion annually. —Yes on Prop 39, 10/04/12 More »

California News

State-Mandated Nurse Staffing Levels Lead to Lower Patient Mortality and Higher Nurse Satisfaction

As mandated by State law, the California Department of Health Services requires acute care hospitals to maintain minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. Required ratios vary by unit, ranging from 1:1 in operating rooms to 1:6 on psychiatric units. The legislation also requires that hospitals maintain a patient acuity classification system to guide additional staffing when necessary, assign certain nursing functions only to licensed registered nurses, determine the competency of and provide appropriate orientation to nurses before assigning them to patient care, and keep records of staffing levels. —Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 10/03/12 More »

Nationwide, California News

Nurses urge Pelosi and others to back the Robin Hood tax

The Inclusive Prosperity Act, or H.R. 6411, would establish a 0.5 percent tax on the trading of stocks, 50 cents on every $100 of trades and lesser rates on bonds, derivatives and currencies. It's being touted as the "Robin Hood tax" because it would generate an estimated $350 billion dollars annually that would go towards growing local economies, taking from the rich to help the poor. —San Francisco Bay Guardian , 10/03/12 More »

Main Street, Nationwide, California, FTT News

Clinton Urged to Support ‘Robin Hood’ Tax to Fund Climate

A transaction levy, or “Robin Hood Tax,” could help fund $100 billion of climate change aid that developed countries have pledged by 2020, and extend to health care and education as well, the 63 groups said in a letter yesterday to Clinton that was e-mailed today by Friends of the Earth. —Bloomberg News, 09/28/12 More »

Main Street, Nationwide, FTT News

Tele-Press Conference to Demand Deceitful New Ad be Taken Off the Air

Citizens Protecting Michigan’s Constitution’s latest ad lies to attack Proposal 2. The 30-second ad falsely claims that Proposal 2 will block schools from removing employees with criminal backgrounds and remove safety standards for school bus drivers. “The last thing we need is parents worrying about the lies in this ad,” said Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. “Proposal 2 won’t make it harder to protect our kids. —Protect Working Families, 09/27/12 More »

Michigan News

The Better Bargain: Transaction Tax, Not Austerity

On the eve of Occupy Wall Street’s first anniversary, Congressman Keith Ellison introduced a much-needed common sense bill: HR 6411, the Inclusive Prosperity Act. The bill taxes financial transactions to generate revenue for social needs. Amid our consensus-narrowed, deficit-obsessed political debate, it’s a call to arms, and a breath of fresh air. —The Nation, 09/26/12 More »

Main Street, Nationwide, FTT News

UMass Memorial Health Care to eliminate 140 positions

WORCESTER — UMass Memorial Health Care said Tuesday it will eliminate 140 positions as it seeks to find $80 million in budget cuts and new revenue for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. —Telegram.com , 09/25/12 More »

Massachusetts News

Endorsement: Proposition 32 power play deserves a ‘no’ vote

Once again, Californians are being asked to diminish unions' power by restricting their ability to raise campaign money. Once more, initiative promoters are trying to mislead voters by claiming to offer campaign finance reform. But just as they did in 1998 and 2005, voters should reject the deception by voting down Proposition 32, a transparent power grab that purports to "stop special interest money." —Sacramento Bee, 09/24/12 More »

California News

Classic Koch: How Prop. 32 Could Enrich Two Billionaires

On September 14 the Web exploded with news that billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch had donated $4 million in support of Proposition 32. A San Francisco Chronicle editorial noting the donation labeled the brothers “conservative ideologues” – a moniker often applied to the Kochs. This description, however, gives the Kochs far too much credit for their supposed philosophical purity—particularly as it relates to the Prop. 32 battle. —Frying Pan News, 09/24/12 More »

California News

Filipino nurses win language discrimination settlement

A group of Filipino nurses who claimed they were mocked for their accents and ordered to speak "English only" won a nearly $1-million settlement against a Central California hospital where bosses and co-workers were allegedly urged to eavesdrop on the immigrant workers. —Los Angeles Times, 09/18/12 More »

California News

Aware of ‘no options,’ Woman Dies Fighting For Medical Coverage

Leslie Elder was always a fighter. But in a message to a friend in the waning days of her life, she seemed exhausted. The note, written at a time of spiritual darkness, suggested defeat after a decades-long struggle for medical coverage. "I honestly don't know how much more I can endure," Elder wrote earlier this year in a Facebook message to her friend Liz Jacobs. "I am fighting for (Medicaid) and disability. I can't work I sit in bed I cry a lot. I am still fighting for healthcare and still fighting foreclosure. —CNN, 09/04/12 More »

Medicare For All News

Former Wells Fargo Employee Says Company Fired Him Over Daughter’s Cancer Costs

According to the suit, his daughter's treatment needs forced Gonzalez to work irregular hours, often away from his office at the company's Palm Beach branch. Between 2009 and 2010, Wells Fargo made several changes to its time records management system, including a new rule prohibiting employees from logging time previously worked. —Crain Communications Inc., 08/17/12 More »

Florida News

Nurses’ union: Legislature should set charity care level for nonprofit hospitals

A nurses' union urged state lawmakers Wednesday to set a minimum level of charity care for all nonprofit hospitals in exchange for their lucrative, tax-exempt status. "We are calling on state officials to pass legislation to rein in the abuses we have seen," said Michael Lighty, public policy director for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. —Silicon Valley Mercury News, 08/16/12 More »

California News

Nonprofit hospitals’ charity care under scrutiny

Nonprofit hospitals in California are facing new scrutiny over whether they are doing enough for the public to justify their tax-exempt status. —Bay Citizen, 08/15/12 More »

California News

California’s Prop. 32 would be Citizens United on steroids

Conservative activists in California are promoting a deceptive ballot proposition that would increase the ability of business groups and billionaires to dominate state elections. The measure, Proposition 32, claims to be an even-handed effort at campaign finance reform – but nothing could be further from the truth. Prop. 32 (or “Stop Special Interest Money Now,” as its big money supporters prefer to call it) would cripple the ability of unions to participate in politics, but have little or no impact on unlimited spending by corporate executives and other wealthy individuals. —The Hill, 08/14/12 More »

California News

Nurses protest at Rideout

About 50 registered nurses, nursing assistants and their families demonstrated Monday with picket signs across the street from Rideout-Memorial Hospital in Marysville. —AppealDemocrat.com, 08/07/12 More »

California News

Walter Frederickson: A tax for the people, not on the people

Earlier this spring, I stood on the steamy streets of Chicago and witnessed a revival that my union brothers and sisters in the Windy City said was a long time coming. I’d been swept into town a day earlier along with hundreds of nurses, union members and others to help National Nurses United (of which MNA is a founding member) launch what quickly became a national movement – the call for a “Robin Hood Tax” on the “Too Big to Fail” banks and Wall Street speculators who created this financial nightmare. —Opinion Editorial by: Walter Frederickson, R.N., 08/01/12 More »

Nationwide, Minnesota News

NHS among developed world’s most efficient health systems, says study

The NHS is one of the most cost-effective health systems in the developed world, according to a study (pdf) published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The "surprising" findings show the NHS saving more lives for each pound spent as a proportion of national wealth than any other country apart from Ireland over 25 years. Among the 17 countries considered, the United States healthcare system was among the least efficient and effective. —the guardian, 07/31/12 More »

International, Medicare For All News

Nurse burnout linked to lapses in patient care

For years nurses — and their union representatives — have argued that inadequate staffing hurts patients. A new study in the American Journal of Infection Control examines the problem and suggests that burnout drives some common lapses in patient care. —newsworks, 07/31/12 More »

Nationwide News