Debate This: I’m 57 and Want Medicare and Social Security for Future Generations
The most troubling thing I heard last evening during the debate was that I could stop listening about the proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare if I was at or near retirement age. I’m not that selfish. I care that my children and grandchildren have those programs. I care so much that I have devoted my personal and professional energy to improving and expanding a 'Medicare for All for Life' model and making sure Social Security remains the sure and safe program that it has been for decades.
Blog by: Donna Smith
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
A corrupted political system based, like healthcare, on ability to pay
Essential social goods – political participation and access to necessary health services - are allocated based on ability to pay. When that happens, it’s easy to see who wins and who loses. The gains go to the top and the rest of us have to fight for what we need.
NNU Blog by: Michael Lighty
Baystate Franklin Medical Center Nurses Strike for Patient Safety
Greenfield, MA – The registered nurses of Baystate Franklin Medical Center walked out of the hospital this morning at 7 a.m. to begin a 24 hour unfair labor practice strike, the first nurses’ strike in the history of the Greenfield-based hospital. The action comes at the end of a year of fruitless negotiations. The nurses were joined by community and labor supporters as well as by more than 100 nurses from hospitals across the state who share the nurses’ concerns for patients safety.
Massachusetts Nurses Association Press Release
Oct 4, 2012
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
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
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
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
Vote “YES†on 30; Vote “NO†on 32
Trust me when I say that politics has become very personal this year; I’m a nurse. As nurses we ask our patients to “tell us where it hurts.†There are those who are too young and too medically fragile who don’t have the ability to utter a word; yet we see the result of an eroding social safety net etched on their faces and wreaking havoc on their health. It doesn’t have to be this way.
DeAnn McEwen, RN, CNA Co-President
Duggan Campaign Rewrites His Anti-Union History
Potential Detroit mayoral candidate Mike Duggan’s campaign responded to concerns about the Detroit Medical Center CEO’s reputation as a union buster today with an astonishing string of falsehoods. In an interview on “First Shift With Tony Trupiano,†Duggan’s committee chairman Conrad Mallett Jr. made misstatements about multiple aspects of an organizing drive initiated by DMC nurses in 2007.
Michigan Nurses Association Press Release
Sep 27, 2012