CHICAGO--As this is written, everyone wounded in the terror bombings at the Boston Marathon has survived his or her wounds. This remarkable testament to effective medical response stems largely from Boston’s exceptional health-care capacity. —Chicago Sun-Times, By Jesse Jackson, 04/23/13 More »
When you're shopping for health insurance, wouldn't it be great if you could find out every insurer's claim denial rate? And how much each one spent on lobbying and advertising -- and how much they paid their CEO? —Huffington Post, By Wendell Potter, 04/23/13 More »
WASHINGTON -- The staggering death toll continues to rise -- not in Boston, but in the small town of West, Texas. Buried by the extraordinary developments in the marathon bombing case, the confirmed deaths of at least 14 people and the injuries of 200 more have been all but lost in the breaking terrorism news. But about 1,800 miles from Boston, rescuers and investigators are sorting through the wreckage of the devastating industrial disaster. —Huffington Post, 04/22/13 More »
Sutter Solano Medical Center remains one of five holdouts in ongoing contract talks between Sutter facilities and their nurses union. That's because a tentative agreement has been reached with Marin County's Sutter Novato Community Hospital, union officials said. —Vallejo Times Herald , 04/19/13 More »
Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota is reintroducing his Inclusive Prosperity Act, a proposal to add a small “financial transactions tax” on high-volume, high-speed trading by Wall Street speculators. The tax—similar to one that the US imposed until 1966, and to taxes maintained by 40 countries worldwide—would generate roughly $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years. —The Nation, By Jorn n', 04/17/13 More »
The unprecedented level of economic inequality in America is undeniable. In an extended essay, Bill Moyers shares examples of the striking extremes of wealth and poverty across the country, including a video report on California’s Silicon Valley. There, Facebook, Google, and Apple are minting millionaires, while the area’s homeless — who’ve grown 20 percent in the last two years — are living in tent cities at their virtual doorsteps. —AlterNet, 04/12/13 More »
The Minnesota Nurses Association announced late Tuesday that Duluth nurses came to a tentative contract agreement with St. Luke’s hospital that would raise wages 4.5 percent. The three-year agreement would go into effect in July and run into June 2016. —Duluth News Tribune, 04/12/13 More »
VIDEO--"Kaiser's a great model of cutting costs," Bonnie Castillo, legislative director of the California Nurses Association told GRITtv. If current trends at Kaiser are any indication, she says, the future includes fewer, more overworked nurses with less time with patients and more robotic doctors, taking vital signs via remote. —GRITtv, 04/12/13 More »
The "chained CPI" proposal in President Obama's budget continues to draw much-deserved fire, which is only likely to increase as more information about it becomes known. Here are nine embarrassing facts about the chained CPI which the White House and its defenders would prefer to see overlooked. —Huffington Post, 04/11/13 More »
Under the federal law, starting Jan. 1 health plans must include certain benefits, such as hospital care and drug coverage, and must cap the amount consumers can be charged through deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. That out-of-pocket cap next year is estimated to be about $6,250 for an individual. —Kaiser Health News, 04/10/13 More »
The battle over the tar sands pipeline among unions has been XL on drama. "For too long we have allowed some corporations to hold a gun to our heads and demand that we choose jobs or choose the earth.” That’s what Terry O’Sullivan, the general president of the Laborers International Union of North America, told green groups and fellow unions at a green-jobs conference in February 2009, just a few months after the union—one of the largest in the country—joined the Blue-Green Alliance, a group organized to advocate for a “clean economy.” —The American Prospect, 04/09/13 More »
Results from a survey out Tuesday are underscoring the repercussions lack of healthcare insurance and high drug costs have on adults in the US. —Common Dreams, 04/09/13 More »
Nonprofit hospitals in California, which take millions of dollars in tax breaks annually, would face greater scrutiny of the charity care and other community benefits they provide under legislation sought by two Bay Area lawmakers. —Mercury News, 04/08/13 More »
Nurses and officials at Quincy Medical Center plan to negotiate Monday morning in an effort to avert a one-day strike planned for next Thursday. Talks between the nurses and the hospital’s parent company, Steward Health Care, were scheduled by a federal mediator and will focus on staffing levels, the main issue in dispute. —The Boston Globe, 04/06/13 More »
HAVERHILL — Nurses took to the street near Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill yesterday to call attention to what they think is an alarming trend at some local hospitals. —The Eagle Tribune, 04/06/13 More »
Ian Rizzio was a 24-year-old mechanical engineering student in Portland, Oregon, managing a sandwich shop to pay his tuition. One day, he woke up sick, but went to work anyway, as he later testified to the Portland City Council. After vomiting in the bathroom, Rizzio spent two hours trying — unsuccessfully — to reach his boss before going home to rest. When Rizzio came into work the next day, he was fired immediately. With $35,000 in student loans, he feared he’d have to withdraw from school. —The Washington Post, 04/03/13 More »
Canada’s tar sands formations, landlocked in northern Alberta, are a giant reserve of carbon-saturated energy — a mixture of sand, clay and a viscous low-grade petroleum called bitumen. Pipelines are the best way to get this resource to market, but existing pipelines to the United States are almost full. So tar sands companies, and the Alberta and Canadian governments, are desperately searching for export routes via new pipelines. —The New York Times, 04/02/13 More »
As I write this letter, I am surrounded by my own young children’s playful laughter and I am both sad and angry for the community I have cared for over the years. This is a dark day for the families of our community. —Taunton Daily Gazette, 04/02/13 More »
South Florida registered nurses this week are celebrating their first ever collective bargaining agreement at Florida Medical Center (FMC) and Palmetto General Hospital, with terms they say will both improve patient care as well as secure economic gains for nurses and their families. —Caribbean Today, 04/02/13 More »
In Antioch, California, Angela Glasper walks through the Kaiser Permanente medical center talking to fellow employees about an upcoming vote between two unions. For years she represented her worksite in negotiations and defended co-workers in grievance meetings. Now she hopes they will listen to her and vote for the National Union of Healthcare Workers. —Labor Notes, 04/01/13 More »
