[Texasunionguy]

Dallas Nurses Announce “Scrubs for SiCKO” Campaign in Conjunction with Debut of Michael Moore’s Film—June 29

Event to Be Led by Three Metroplex Nurses Who Were Fired for Protesting Unsafe Patient Conditions in Hospital

National Campaign Features Unprecedented Coalition of Healthcare Provider Groups Working for Guaranteed Healthcare

A group of Dallas nurses from the NNOC Texas Metropolitan Committee is planning their “Scrubs for SiCKO” campaign for June 29, the opening night of Michael Moore’s new movie SiCKO. This national campaign is lining up nurses and doctors for opening-night showings of the movie in theaters across the U.S. to talk to moviegoers about how to solve the healthcare crisis – and get the insurance companies, who are the source of a systemic denial of care, out of the way. NNOC Texas is hosting multiple events across the state. The Dallas event will feature a media availability at approximately 6:30, tabling throughout the evening, and a public discussion/Q & A after the 9:10 showing.

What: Dallas RNs Announce “Scrubs for SiCKO” Campaign
When: Friday June 29, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Angelika Film Center, 5231 E. Mockingbird Lane, Dallas

The California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee is conducting the campaign with an unprecedented coalition of nurses and doctors organizations from coast to coast and is working on behalf of legislation, HR 676 in Congress, that would establish a single-payer type system which guarantees universal, comprehensive healthcare in the form of an improved and expanded Medicare for all. At last count, some 10,000 nurses nationally have signed up for the effort.

The Dallas event will also feature tabling and a media availability before the film, led by three nurses who were recently fired for protesting unsafe patient care conditions in their hospital. They were assigned to care for more intensive care unit patients than they were safely able to handle, and were fired for bringing the issue up with management. The issue of insufficient staffing for intensive care patients and the nurses firings is expected to be the subject of a variety of public and regulatory hearings.

While every screen around the country will have nurses in attendance, Dallas is one of nearly 100 cities that will also feature events leading up to the showing.

For more information visit Sicko | Guaranteed Healthcare

About NNOC Texas: Launched in 2006, NNOC Texas has become the voice for direct-care RNs in Texas. In a few short months, NNOC Texas organized a statewide movement of RNs in support of enhanced rights for nurses and patients, culminating in the introduction of Texas HB 1707, which introduced a number of key patient safety reforms for the state. NNOC Texas has Metropolitan Committees of nurses in nearly every major city in Texas, and thousands of RNs engaged in efforts to strengthen the ability of RNs to advocate for their patients and themselves.

Background:
The caregivers will distribute information and urge moviegoers to join the drive for a fundamental overhaul of the nation’s dysfunctional healthcare system – as is so brilliantly described in “SiCKO.” They will urge the audience to help pass guaranteed healthcare on single-payer/Medicare-for-all model, including legislation such as HR 676 (Conyers) now pending in Congress and several states, and make it a central focus of the presidential campaign.

Calling it the “Scrubs for SiCKO” campaign, organizers will recruit registered nurses and doctors to every theater in the nation where “SiCKO” opens to ensure that caregivers – in SiCKO scrubs—are in the audience.

Nurses and doctors have been seizing the “SiCKO” moment at events across the nation. The first public major screening of the movie came at a CNA/NNOC rally in California. Following that, a delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country spent last week on an East Coast bus tour to help energize the nurse grassroots. Along the way, they testified before Congress about the need for urgent, systemic change, and unveiled a new data study uncovering the financial ties between healthcare corporations and presidential candidates.

Participants on the bus tour included the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, New York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, United Steelworkers (USW) Health Care Workers Council, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, United Nurses and Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), Communications Workers of America, and the New England Nurses Association. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions also participated.

“SiCKO” profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been denied needed care by their insurance companies, describes how the insurance-based healthcare system is structured to keep it that way, and provides examples of other industrialized nations where insurance companies do not stand in the way of medical care.

The campaign will highlight the need for reforms that prevent insurance companies from denying care, and send a strong signal to politicians in Congress, state capitals, and the presidential race who are promoting insurance-based reforms.

HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures would have one public entity collecting and disbursing all revenues for care delivered by our current, mostly private hospitals, clinics, and doctors--similar to how Medicare works. The system is universal, assures comprehensive benefits, guarantees freedom to choose your provider, and controls costs. It also drastically curbs administrative costs – and the waste caused by insurance company profits and paperwork. Similar versions are succeeding in nearly every other industrialized nation in the world.