Guaranteed Healthcare

John Conyers sees the RNs' bus for the first time.

By Donna Smith

KENT, Ohio -- Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, who is also the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the primary sponsor of HR676, the National Health Insurance Act, looked up with joy as he spotted the RNs' bus on the main drag in Kent, Ohio.  Conyers was at the local Democratic Party headquarters helping stoke up the troops for the 10-day push to election day 2008.  The nurses were making their way from Cleveland to Youngstown to educate citizens about their healthcare report card for candidates for this election cycle.

For nurses who have met Conyers before, seeing him in Ohio is a reminder of just how critical Mr. Conyers believes this election is.  And for the nurses who have not met him, he took a bit of extra time to shake hands and admire the bus that rates the candidates but also clearly tells all that the RNS believe HR676, publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare is the treatment the ailing nation needs for its healthcare system.

The stop in Kent followed a morning of finding opportunities to reach out to citizens who may not know where the nurses stand on healthcare reform and why nurses know a single payer system is the right way to go. 

Starting the day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland up against the banks of Lake Erie, our nurses carried healthcare report cards everywhere they went.  With the vast majority of people open to hearing the nurses' message on healthcare justice, many RNs remarked that they are more committed than ever to seeing HR676 passed.

Everywhere they go, the nurses hear stories from patients hurting for access to care they need and others suffering to afford any level of private health insurance coverage.  Families tell of premiums topping $1,200 every month -- or more -- and share fear about hanging on to their homes as health costs and job losses gobble more of their income.  Many Ohioans have been struggling for months already, they tell the nurses, and without legislation like HR676 their families stand to join the ranks of the unemployed and even the homeless.

Under HR676, Americans would pay into one single, public benefit pool and they would choose their own doctors, clinics, hospitals and other providers.  The plan would save billions for the nation at a time when saving billions makes a lot of sense.  The plan would eliminate the heavy administrative burden of dealing with for-profit, health insurance companies.  These administrative costs often amount to 25 percent or more of what is "spent" by health insurance companies -- and leaves Americans paying more than double what citizens of other nations pay and getting less for their money.  Nurses know the time to change that has come.  Putting our healthcare dollars into healthcare instead of paperwork and profit would mean drastic improvements in patient care. 

On the eve of an election in which so many are resting great hope for change which follows the massive Wall Street bailout that seemed to spell so much more of the same, the nurses hear very real concern about the coming months.  An elderly woman mentions her medications and her worries about affording food; a middle-aged couple waits on the sidewalk to tell John Conyers about their healthcare trauma. 

Dignity was delivered today in Ohio.  And RNs won't be parking the bus or the shelving the effort on November 4th.  Their Ohio patients now know better.