If there is one defining symbol of how horribly broken our health care system is, this is it: One-third of all GoFundMe campaigns are created to pay for medical expenses, a stunning 250,000 campaigns that have raised an astonishing $650 million, CBS recently reported.

What’s behind this appalling portrait of tens of thousands of families having to beg for help to pay for critically needed care? A morbidly named concept branded as, “Skin in the Game.”

Ask yourself, who do you trust to make decisions about who should be allowed to practice nursing in your state? Do you trust your state’s nursing board, or would you trust an organization with little oversight and a comfy relationship with corporate sponsors such as big pharma? That question is central to our discussion today. RN and Nurse Practice Specialist for National Nurses United, Michelle Mahon joins us for this podcast.

Try as elected officials might to pledge allegiance to both corporations and to people, it won’t work that way. Not anymore.

As leaders in the grassroots movement for single payer, registered nurses are looking forward to Medicare for All’s role in the coming election. America has not yet had a presidential election at a time when Medicare for All was a household concept. We’ve never yet started a presidential election cycle with 70 percent of the American people supporting Medicare for All.

National Nurses United RNs are fighting to protect Florida’s drinking water with a ban on all forms of fracking for oil or natural gas in the state. The nurses joined other environmental activists on February 2 in Bradenton, Fla. for a rally to urging state Senate President Bill Galvano to vote in favor of a ban.

Ginnelle Stewart, an ICU registered nurse and NNU member, spoke at the rally about the public health hazards and the high human costs associated with fracking.