Nurses hold town halls across the nation

RNs, allies speak out on Medicaid, saving the VA and Social Security

By Rachel Berger and Michelle Morris

National Nurse magazine - July | August | September 2025 Issue

Nurses with National Nurses United affiliate, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, held town halls in California, Florida, and Georgia over the summer to discuss the impact of H.R. 1, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, on everyday people in the United States and to urge the public to protect federal workers and veterans health care. 

The reconciliation bill, which passed on July 1, steals more than $900 billion in Medicaid funding from our most vulnerable patients and slashes insurance for upwards of 10 million people to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. It will also accelerate the insolvency of the Social Security fund to 2032. 

In August, at a town hall in Bakersfield, Calif., CNA nurses along with local elected officials and leaders and members of local community organizations and the Central Valley – vowed to take on the elected officials and corporations that are destroying public programs like Medicaid to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

“The federal budget bill is a cruel piece of legislation that will have disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable in our communities, including the patients I care for in Bakersfield,” said Sandy Reding, a registered nurse at Bakersfield Memorial and a CNA/NNOC president. “This bill will take away two basic human rights: health care and food.”

The Bakersfield event, hosted by NNU and CNA, was cosponsored by 24 organizations, and was a stop on the AFL-CIO’s national “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security” bus tour. 

“Union nurses see so clearly what’s happening right now with Medicaid cuts — it is what we call a ‘takeaway campaign,’” said Mary Turner, a registered nurse and NNU president. “It’s when our corporate employers try to revoke protections that we have already won so that we can keep our patients and our colleagues healthy and safe. Union nurses know better than anyone that we don’t just stand by and let the bosses take protections away. We fight back.”

Also in August, NNOC nurses hosted a town hall in Tampa, Fla. to discuss strategies to protect Social Security, including the passage of the Social Security Expansion Act to guarantee a dignified retirement for all people. Due to H.R. 1, by 2045, the projected cuts to Social Security mean that an additional 3.8 million people ages 62 and older will fall into poverty, according to the Urban Institute.

“Nurses and our allies refuse to stand by and watch our hard-earned Social Security be dismantled by billionaires who want to enrich themselves through privatization,” said Marissa Lee, a registered nurse at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee, Fla. and an NNU vice president. “Instead, we are calling for the expansion of Social Security, so that everyone in the United States receives the benefits they earned and deserve.” 

At a July town hall meeting in Augusta, Ga., hosted by NNOC/NNU, VA registered nurses, along with veterans groups, federal unions, and community members, gathered to discuss the chaos induced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration on the federal workforce, including illegal terminations, efforts to strip federal workers of their union rights, and deep, frequently incapacitating, budget cuts to critical government agencies.

“I am so pleased that people from all walks of life showed up at this town hall to stand with us as we fight back against this administration’s policies that threaten the very existence of the VA,” said Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse at the Charles Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Ga., chair of NNU’s VA Division, and the NNU secretary-treasurer. “There is a group of rich and powerful people in Washington, D.C. who want nothing more than to get their hands on billions of taxpayer dollars so they can put that money into the pockets of health care giants instead of into the care of those who served our country. Nurses, federal workers, and veterans are saying ‘Absolutely not!’ and we need everyone to join us to save the VA.” 

Rachel Berger and Michelle Morris are communications specialists at National Nurses United.