INSIDE THIS UPDATE:

1. Robin Hood Rides in DC Next Week – Join Us!

2. HEAL DC – RNs Rally for Safe Ratios

3. REJECT CUTS to Social Security and Medicare!

4. California Charity Care Bill to Hold Hospitals Accountable

5. Massachusetts RNs protest for patient care

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Robin Hood Rides in DC Next Week – Join Us!

On April 20, Robin Hood will be marching from the IMF and World Bank to the US Treasury to demand a Robin Hood Tax in the U.S. We hope you can join us! On April 17 Congressmember Ellison (D-MN) will be holding a press conference to herald the reintroduction of The Inclusive Prosperity Act which calls for a Robin Hood Tax. Stay tuned for more on that.

In order to send a powerful message to the G20 Finance Ministers who will be meeting in DC in a few weeks, we need to ensure as big a mobilization as possible – and to do this we need your help to reach more people.

Can’t make it to DC? Join the Movement Online:

1. Like Robin on Facebook

2. Follow Robin on Twitter @RobinHoodTax and use the hashtag #TaxWallStreet

3. Sign-up for email alerts on our website

4. Visit our Facebook DC event page for details

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HEAL DC – RNs Rally for Safe Ratios

The participation of every nurse is needed at two upcoming events to demand passage of the Patient Protection Act to ensure minimum mandatory RN-to-patient ratios in DC’s hospitals.

Friday, April 19: Rally at Freedom Plaza
13th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Buses will leave from the corner of 1st and Irving St., NW
at 4:45 p.m. and return by 6:45 p.m.

Tuesday, May 14: Hearing in the DC Council
Buses will leave from the corner of 1st and Irving St., NW
at 9:45 a.m. and return when the hearing ends.

Call 240-235-2000 or talk to your shop steward to reserve a seat on the bus.

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REJECT CUTS to Social Security and Medicare!

The largest U.S. organization of registered nurses, National Nurses United (NNU), issued its strongest warning today: Cuts in Social Security and Medicare would do harm to America’s elderly and disabled, vulnerable populations whose resources already place them in the margins. NNU called upon lawmakers to withdraw from all considerations of these cuts. Although Social Security contributes nothing to the federal deficit, Congress could increase revenue for the Social Security trust fund by raising the payroll tax income limit.

National Nurses United, 04/08/13 More »

TAKE ACTION: Tell the President NO CUTS to Social Security or Medicare:

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California Charity Care Bill to Hold Hospitals Accountable

Malinda Markowitz, RN and CNA Co-president

Time for Hospitals To Act as Good Corporate Citizens

Has therapeutic healing and recovery become a vanishing mission among California hospitals? Are California hospitals operating as big corporations more devoted to piling up cash than to assuring the delivery of care? A look at how California’s private, not-for-profit hospitals are meeting their responsibilities for providing charity care and community benefit programs suggests many have lost their way. —Malinda Markowitz Commentary, California Healthline, 04/09/13 More »

Bill to Hold Hospitals Accountable on Charity Care Passes First California Legislative Test

Legislation to press California non-profit hospitals to fulfill their charity care obligation in exchange for the substantial public financing they receive through their tax exempt status passed its first hurdle Tuesday in the California Assembly Health Committee overcoming opposition from California’s biggest hospital corporations and its allies. —California Nurses Association, 04/03/13 More »

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Massachusetts RNs protest for patient care

HAVERHILL — Nurses took to the street near Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill yesterday to call attention to what they think is an alarming trend at some local hospitals. —The Eagle Tribune, 04/06/13 More »

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National Nurses United

Robin Hood Tax Campaign

Tune in to NNU on Nurse Talk Radio

Malinda Markowitz
Co-president, California Nurses Association

Has therapeutic healing and recovery become a vanishing mission among California hospitals? Are California hospitals operating as big corporations more devoted to piling up cash than to assuring the delivery of care?

A look at how California’s private, not-for-profit hospitals are meeting their responsibilities for providing charity care and community benefit programs suggests many have lost their way.

In 2010 alone, not-for-profit hospitals pocketed $1.8 billion dollars in government subsidies through their tax breaks and other benefits above what they returned to patients in charity care, as documented in a California Nurses Association report based on public data.

Nearly half that total was recorded by just two of California’s biggest hospital chains, Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, which also happened to account for almost half of the 100 not-for-profit hospital executives who received pay packages of more than $1 million a year.

While many hospitals are no doubt good corporate citizens, these numbers undermine credibility for the hospital industry as a whole, especially when some apparently count marketing, cost-cutting and other dubious practices as their community benefit program.

Instead of opposing a common sense bill like AB 975, just as they have fought nearly every reform aimed at strengthening patient protections in California, hospital lobbyists should welcome this legislation as a way to restore public confidence that they are being genuinely transparent, accountable and acting in good faith in the delivery of charity care and community benefit.

California’s nurses salute Assembly members Bob Wieckowski and Rob Bonta for introducing AB 975. The bill is supported by California Nurses Association and an array of other labor and consumer groups, as well as elected leaders who believe we need common standards and a level playing field with equal expectations for all not-for-profit hospitals that reap the rewards of their tax exempt status.

Regrettably, implementation of the Affordable Care Act will not end the health care crisis. We continue to see patients skipping needed medical treatment, cutting prescription pills in half, unable to pay exorbitant hospital bills and facing huge out-of-pocket costs for insurance they can barely use.

Until we can achieve more far-reaching health reform, it is more important than ever for hospitals to compete in providing appropriate and equitable levels of charity care and community benefit, and not in who can most resemble Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs

Read more

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan’s sordid scorecard: ‘We are proud of it and would do it again’ says Regan of his attack on ratios

When the usual corporate suspects lined up before the Assembly Health Committee last week to oppose a CNA-sponsored bill to require some non-profit hospital giants to stop treating their tax exempt status like a Cayman Islands tax shelter, they had a special friend in tow.

That was SEIU-UHW rubbing shoulders, again, with the California Hospital Association, CHA (chief lobbyist for the state’s biggest hospitals), Kaiser Permanente, Sutter, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the California Chamber of Commerce (main state advocate for Wall Street).

SEIU-UHW,  which only a year ago was collecting signatures on a similar initiative to hold non-profit hospital corporations accountable for meeting their charity care obligation, now was telling the committee it was worried about the “uniquely uncertain landscape” created by the Affordable Care Act.

So were SEIU-UHW and its president Dave Regan being dishonest last year when pushing their initiative, at a time when the problems with the ACA were already quite clear? Did they just suffer a sudden loss of conscience?

Was that initiative, which conveniently exempted Regan’s top partner, Kaiser, a fraud, quickly dumped when Regan signed a secret deal with CHA?

Or are Regan and company now just making up new pretexts for marching in lockstep with their hospital industry mates?

For more on the charity care bill, read here http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/bill-to-hold-hospitals-accountable-on-charity-care-passes-first-california-/

And here http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22971313/two-bay-area-lawmakers-seek-hold-tax-exempt

Why Kaiser RNs are supporting NUHW-CNA

As thousands of Kaiser health care workers this week begin receiving ballots on whether to dump Regan’s SEIU-UHW and vote to join the CNA-affiliated NUHW,  it’s worth revisiting the sordid record of Regan and his top managers the past two years.

Regan’s attack on RN ratios

Most infamously, Regan last spring agreed to a request from CHA CEO Duane Dauner to lobby California legislators to introduce a bill last year to fulfill the CHA’s decade long goal to overturn the state’s landmark ratio law.

As part of the scheme, Regan was to urge the California Labor Federation, umbrella organization of California unions, to go along with that proposal.  Regan fell on his face, failing to win the support of a single legislator or other union.

Read more here http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/kathy-robertson/2012/06/unions-health-care-nurse-ratio.html?page=all

And here

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/news/entry/cna-wages-war-against-uhw-in-california-claiming-attempt-to-suspend-staffin/

Has Regan had second thoughts about his proposal to sabotage a law that is saving the lives of thousands of California patients, some of whom are even Regan’s own members?

Not at all. “We are proud of it and would do it again,” said Regan in a radio interview last week.  http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/90399 

Regan’s promotion of ‘Wellness’ schemes to erode health benefits

Regan has teamed with CHA and other hospital employers to promote “wellness” programs supposedly intended to encourage healthy personal habits to reduce overall healthcare costs. The public CHA-SEIU-UHW joint wellness initiative for California is what Regan publicly received in return for abandoning his charity care initiative.

The employers’ real goal, of course, is slashing what they pay for worker health coverage, and forcing workers to pay far more out of pocket for not meeting arbitrary “wellness” goals, even if they have chronic or genetic health conditions that have nothing to do with “life style” choices.

Recent evidence documents that the “cost controls” come from, you guessed it, cost shifting from the employer or insurer to the employee.

The plans, which more hospitals are seeking to make mandatory, also involve substantial invasion of personal privacy. 

Read more here http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/04/corporate-wellness-programs-not-quite-the-cost-savers/ 

And here http://www.labornotes.org/print/4146

Regan’s concessionary contracts

RNs across California who work side by side with SEIU-UHW members are probably already aware of the sweeping concessions Regan and his coterie have signed with hospital managers.

Here’s a list just for Kaiser:

• $1.8 billion in retiree health benefit cuts
• Closed door talks to dump defined benefit guaranteed pensions for 401 (k) plans subject to shaky market swings.
• Higher out of pocket health coverage costs tied to “wellness” goals 
• 1,000 announced layoffs of UHW-SEIU members
• Subcontracting union jobs 
• A 9 cent per hour labor-management “partnership” tax to Kaiser paid by every UHW-SEIU member
• Marketing Kaiser’s business plan goals, including silence when Kaiser cuts mental health and other patient services

And in other hospital systems, SEIU-UHW has agreed to wage freezes, deep cuts in health and pension plans, requiring members to go through a bidding process following seismic rebuilds, and public testimony in support of employers’ corporate initiatives.

Shilling for hospital employers—that’s the Regan legacy, and why so many Kaiser workers are voting this week to replace him.

Demand Treasury Secretary Lew and President Obama Stand with the People NOT Wall Street

Wall Street banks and corporations are raking in record profits while our communities continue to suffer job losses and cuts to public programs. Instead of lining the pockets of corporate fat cats, this money should go to our children’s Head Start programs, Grandma’s retirement, and fixing our broken healthcare system.

It’s time for the administration to stand with the people and TAX WALL STREET.

Join us April 20 as we march to the White House and Treasury Department to demand a financial transaction tax on Wall Street trades so we can put the money toward global health needs, addressing the climate crisis, jobs, and education.

NOON Rally at Murrow Park in front of the IMF and World Bank
Pennsylvania Ave. between 18th and 19th Streets NW • Washington, DC

12:30 pm March to the White House and US Treasury Department

Share the PDF flyer

Visit and share our Facebook events page

Contact Robin Hood Tax Campaign Coordinator Francesca Lo Basso with any questions:

Get more details at www.RobinHoodTax.org

Coming Up on Nurse Talk Radio

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Listen and share the NNU segment:

LISTEN: Missouri RNs fight for safe lift bill – HB 856

Featureing Missouri RN Emma Stroud

Podcast: Download (Duration: 8:37 — 11.8MB) | Embed

Listen to the Full Show here >>

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By Pattie Lockard
Executive Producer
Nurse Talk Radio

Missouri RNs fight for safe lift bill – HB 856

We’ve touched on this issue before but it’s worth talking about again.

The statistics regarding back injuries are frightening! Approximately 80% of adults are expected to experience back injuries in their lifetime with 10% re-injuring! When it comes to health care professionals, the facts get are even worse.

According to national statistics, six of the top 10 professions at greatest risk for back injury are nurse’s aides, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, health aides, radiology technicians, and physical therapists. Healthcare industry workers sustain 4.5 times more overexertion injuries than any other type of worker.

Well, registered nurses from hospitals in Kansas City and St. Louis, members of National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), with the help of their state legislators, recently introduced HB 856 – the Safe Lift Bill. Sounds like a no brainer right? Listen and find out how challenging it was to get this bill introduced. Trust us – this is important even if it isn’t a sexy topic.

READ THE FULL NNU PRESS RELEASE

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1. Florida Nurses Welcome First Contract

2. Illinois Jackson Park Chicago RNs Win First Hospital Contract

3. California Nurses Reach Agreement with Sutter CPMC

4. Michigan MNA President, Jeff Breslin on Right To Work

5. Missouri Nurses Push for “Safe Patient Handling” Law HB 856

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1. Florida Nurses Welcome First Contract

South Florida registered nurses this week are celebrating their first ever collective bargaining agreement at Florida Medical Center (FMC) and Palmetto General Hospital, with terms they say will improve patient care as well as secure economic gains for nurses and their families. —NNOC Florida / NNU, 03/27/13 More »

2. Illinois Jackson Park Chicago RNs Win First Hospital Contract

Registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago’s South Side late Monday reached agreement with hospital officials on their first ever collective bargaining contract that includes significant improvements in patient care protections. —National Nurses United, 03/19/13. More »  Also, listen to and share the Nurse Talk Radio NNU segment here.

3. California RNs Reach Agreement with Sutter CPMC & St. Luke

Registered nurses at two San Francisco Sutter hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital, have, at long last, reached agreement with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining contract for the 800 RNs who work at the two facilities, the California Nurses Association said today. —California Nurses Association , 03/27/13 More »

4. Michigan MNA President, Jeff Breslin on Right To Work

The undemocratic, illegal process used to pass that law was shameful. The bills were rushed through the Legislature in a way Michigan has never seen, without public comment and with citizens locked out of the Capitol at times. —Lansing State Journal, by Jeff Breslin, RN, 03/28/13 More »

5. Missouri Nurses Push for “Safe Patient Handling” Law HB 856

Registered Nurses from hospitals in Kansas City and St. Louis, members of National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), will hold a press conference on Wednesday, March 27 at 12:30p at the Gallery of the House of Representatives Lounge in Jefferson City to underscore support for the “Safe Lift” bill. The bill puts in place known solutions available to reduce patient and healthcare-giver injuries resulting from lifting. —National Nurses Organizing Committee – Missouri, 03/25/13 More »

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Thanks, and please FOLLOW US online at any/all of the links below!

National Nurses United

Robin Hood Tax Campaign

Tune in to NNU on Nurse Talk Radio

Coming Up on Nurse Talk Radio

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Listen and share the NNU segment:

LISTEN: Collective Bargaining Win for Nurses and Patients in Chicago
Featuring Chicago RN, Monica Lloyd

Podcast: Download | Embed (Duration: 11:52 — 16.3MB)

Listen to the Full Show here >>

Continue reading →

By: Julia Morrissey, nurse, Ann Arbor

Opinion March 28, 2013 at 1:00 am

I’m a registered nurse who actually knows what patients need when they’re in the hospital. So I was outraged by The Detroit News’ distorted editorial about a bill to require all Michigan hospitals to meet minimal levels of nurse staffing (March 14, “State shouldn’t mandate hospital staffing levels”).

Few people realize there are no laws requiring hospitals to have enough nurses on duty at any time.

Some hospitals work well with nurses to manage staffing levels appropriately. With no accountability, though, too many purposely understaff just to save a few dollars.

This widespread practice is dangerous for patients and can even be deadly.

Continue reading →

Commentary by: Jeff Breslin, RN 

Today is a sad day in our state’s history as the so-called “right to work” law takes effect.

From the start, Gov. Rick Snyder insisted that this radical anti-worker legislation wasn’t on his agenda.

In December, he showed his true colors and signed “right to work for less,” pleasing millionaire Dick DeVos and other corporate interests while betraying the rest of us.

The undemocratic, illegal process used to pass that law was shameful. The bills were rushed through the Legislature in a way Michigan has never seen, without public comment and with citizens locked out of the Capitol at times.

Now Michigan is just another RTW state, handed over to corporations in a race to the bottom.

Gov. Snyder should know this, though: Michigan’s nurses and other working families are committed to overcoming this injustice.

The law is being challenged in court on grounds that it was passed in violation of the First Amendment and the Open Meetings Act and that it violates the constitution and federal labor laws.

Even if these laws are wrongly upheld, Michigan’s working families are focused on replacing the politicians who have torn our state apart.

Michigan voters aren’t stupid — they see that Gov. Snyder and his friends in the Legislature serve their corporate friends, not those of us who actually work for a living.

It’s no surprise that Gov. Snyder’s approval ratings plummeted after he signed “right to work.”

Michigan families will be working hard to overcome this unjust law through the courts and the political process, and most of all we will keep doing what we’ve always done: work hard to take care of our fellow citizens, build Michigan’s unions and our middle class. As the old labor movement saying goes: “Don’t mourn — organize.”

Registered nurses like me, teachers, construction workers and others will be in our workplaces every day, talking to our co-workers to build solidarity and keep our voices strong in the face of corporations that want to silence us.

That, essentially, is what “right to work” is about — corporations and CEOs silencing and dividing workers so they can cut our wages, benefits and safety standards for their own gain.

As for “worker freedom,” I have to laugh every time a politician uses that term. The only “freedom” a worker gets under RTW is the freedom to receive union benefits while letting everyone else pay the costs. The “freedom” to refuse to pay your fair share isn’t the kind of freedom most workers want in their workplace.

“Right to work” is meant to play on this tension between workers — something Gov. Snyder and the GOP acknowledged when they exempted firefighters and police officers.

The law could create divisions among them, they said.

Well, a law that’s good for some workers should be good for all workers – but “right to work” isn’t good for any of us.

Fortunately, the spirit of Michigan workers is stronger than the letter of this law.

That spirit will shine more than ever in the months to come

Jeff Breslin is a registered nurse at Sparrow Hospital and president of the Michigan Nurses Association.

SOURCE >>

Realated news on Right To Work (RTW) 

By: Jeffrey Young Become a fan

Originally Posted: 03/26/2013 3:30 pm EDT

Having a baby is just one medical cost that’s higher in the United States than in other countries, according to a new report.

Decades of data have shown time and again that the U.S. has the costliest health care system in the world by a variety of measures.

Still, a report released by the International Federation of Health Plans (i.e., health insurance companies) today provides a striking reminder of just how much more expensive health care is for Americans.

The report compared prices in the U.S. with prices in 11 other nations. It found that average prices in the United States are higher for most medical services cited in the report, but at the top end of the range, U.S. health care prices can be staggering compared to what citizens of other nations pay.

Planning to have a baby? At an average price for a normal delivery of $9,775, you’ll pay more than a woman in the 10 other countries in the report — and possibly as much as $16,653, or double what it would cost an Australian woman and more than 14 times the price for a woman in Argentina. The average price of a Cesarean section in the U.S., $15,041, is also higher than any other country — and it could cost as much as $26,305.

Need life-saving coronary artery bypass surgery? Again, the U.S. average price is the highest at $73,420, and may reach $150,515. The average American price is more than $30,000 higher than the second-place price (in Australia), and more than eight times higher than in Argentina.

The price per-day of being the hospital also finds the U.S. leading the pack. The average daily cost of a U.S. hospital stay is $4,287 — almost 10 times Argentina — and it can be more than twice that amount.

How about a basic doctor’s appointment? In the U.S., the average price is $95, and it ranges to $176 or more. In second-place Chile, it comes to $38.

There are more examples in the International Federation of Health Plans report, including prescription drugs, diagnostic testing and joint replacement surgeries. The results are pretty consistent across the board.

So what’s the total effect of these high prices on the U.S.? This chart showing the share of nine countries’ gross domestic product that goes to health care offers a summation of the entire report.

READ THE FULL REPORT:

International Federation of Health Plans 2012 Comparative Price Report by Jeffrey Young