Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia --  Perhaps it would have been more logical to wrap up this road show in the nation's capital, grab the "money" shots and head for home.  But that wouldn't be quite the usual style of the brave and hard-working nurses of the National Nurses Organizing Committee or the California Nurses Association.  So long as there were voters to educate and healthcare "hero" candidates who needed support, the nurses worked on.

In Chesapeake, Virginia, Congressional candidate Andrea Miller of Congressional District 4 has been working hard and talking to her future constituents for several months, and she sure was thrilled to see the healthcare road show bus, complete with the RNs' candidate report card, in her district.  CNA/NNOC president Geri Jenkins shared some rally time with Andrea and wished her well in tomorrow's election.

While the presidential race is often the sexiest from a media perspective, nurses know that when they look for legislative support for making their profession stronger, it is often the people who hold Congressional office that are the most critical.  So on this long road show, the bus made its way to five of the Congressional districts where RNs identified healthcare heroes -- candidates who support single payer, publicly funded and privately delivered healthcare.

So, the road show wrapped up its 10-state run in Virginia.  It seemed like everywhere we went there were volunteers working on Get-Out-the-Vote efforts and infusing energy into the election process.  As we bid farewell to the road, the nurses were set to head home to their home states -- but not to put their feet up and rest.  The nurses were heading home to knock on doors, serve as poll watchers, give rides to polling places, make phone calls and continue the work so vital to this democracy.

Tomorrow, the work begins anew.  There is no rest so long as Americans are dying due to the lack of accessible healthcare.  Those deaths do not stop on election day or simply because one party or the other scores a win.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow, more than 60 American families will bury a loved one because our healthcare system is so very broken.  And unless our new leaders -- both our President and our new Congress -- launch into real healthcare reform efforts with all appropriate haste, the death toll will keep mounting.  Changing that reality would be the nurses' true victory.

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON, DC -- Some scenes defy verbal description.  Above see our RNs at the Vietnam War Memorial sculpture depicting nurses on the battlefield.  Those of you lucky enough to know our president, Geri Jenkins, trauma RN, know she was teaching all the while... as her fellow members looked on and even a tour group became better informed about a nurse's role and duty, no matter what the emotion of the moment or the setting. 

Below we see a third grade student from Orange County, Calif., after her mom and grandmom had shared with her why all these names are etched in stone.  The family paid tribute to a fallen friend, but the girl's mother also took a moment to acknowledge the nurses of CNA who also rank among the family's heroes.  "Thank you for how hard you fight," she said as our nurses walked past.

By Donna Smith

PORTLAND, Maine -- Today we've been through Connecticutt, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.  And as you might imagine, at that pace, we aren't exactly wasting time on the ground.  Every stop, every step is one taken to reach toward our objective:  educating our fellow citizens about healthcare reform and about HR676, single payer, guaranteed healthcare for all.

Seems like we end up reaching lots of people in diners and coffee shops where they don't really seem to mind too much if a nurse walks up to offer some information and then engages in conversation about the problems related to healthcare that everyone has in within their families or circles of friends.

Today we joined with nurses from five states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and California.  The RNs share common frustrations about what they face every day in being advocates for their patients, and they share the goal of making sure the system is fixed before thousands more patients die.

Everybody in the diner needs healthcare: cooks, wait staff, owners, customers.  All are sure to find that if they give these nurses a moment, they'll be much better informed about the best way to clean up the mess in this nation's for-profit healthcare system.

We shared lunch with other labor folks also working to spread the word during this election season.  Though some citizens seem a bit campaign-fatigued in some ways -- especially in the battleground states -- most are still more than willing to take a peek at the RNs report cards on healthcare reform and learn a bit more.

Generally, citizens are energized and anxious to get on with the election and then continue their work on the issues they find most important.  But in recent days, along with some challenging interactions with a very few folks who have closed minds and hearts, nurses have been able to break through all the noise with their message. 

Tomorrow, Bangor, Maine... as we embrace nurses in Maine and reach out to folks still wondering what to think about all the women in red scrubs getting off that big, shrink-wrapped bus, and why these nurses care enough to travel so far. 

Chellie Pingree of North Haven, Maine, is the mother of three grown children, and she is a grandmother.  She is also a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 1^st Congressional District in Maine.  She is firmly in support of single payer healthcare reform through HR676, the National Health Insurance Act. 

“When my brother Bob was diagnosed with cancer at age 39, he had to fight two battles - the cancer and the insurance companies. He died 14 months later with the guilt that his illness brought financial ruin to his young family. Unfortunately, my family wasn't unique and this shouldn't happen to anyone,” Pingree shared.

Chellie is a Democrat and she supports H.R. 676, the National Healthy Insurance Act, sponsored by Representative John Conyers, D-MI. She explained, “H.R. 676 is a proposal for a single-payer health care system in America. By bringing all people under one roof of coverage, costs go down as we benefit from system efficiencies and economies of scale. When that one roof doesn't take a profit, costs are even lower.”

She's not your average, politically connected candidate, and she has unconventional, bold ideas for the people of her district and for the nation.  Among the issues most critical to Andrea Miller is that of single payer healthcare reform.  She minces no words, pulls no punches and wastes no time letting folks know she's all about the best way to make sure all Americans have healthcare -- through single payer legislation like HR676.

Andrea is the mother of two grown children, and she understands that being a responsible parent means being a responsible citizen as she listens to families in the district talk about everything from economic hardships to energy concerns and beyond.

Though Virgina's 4th Congressional District is currently represented by a conservative Republican, Andrea says, "This race is winnable. From people I've met walking door-to-door to the folks I met at county fairs, people are ready for change."

But along with some momentum from the Obama campaign's efforts to register young voters, Andrea is working hard to reach all the areas of a district that takes two-and-a-half hours to drive end-to-end and is filled with voters as diverse as any district in the nation.

Debbie Cook – California’s 46^th District

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- California’s 46th congressional district stretches along the Pacific coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  The district’s U.S. Congressional Democratic Congressional candidate is Debbie Cook, the second our “healthcare heroes” featured during this countdown to the November general election.

Debbie has been on the front lines for her community for many years but it was issues like the healthcare crisis, energy and what she terms a convergence of issues that compelled her to run for Congress. “How can we not do our best to tackle these things?” she asked.  As a candidate, Debbie hears her future constituents calling for sensible and meaningful action, and as a seasoned public servant she is ready to oblige.