Employer health care doesn’t work. If you lose your job, you lose your right to health care. Everyone knows someone who has lost health care or has outrageous bills. Why still have this debate? This is the time to say healthcare is a human right: Healthcare to cover every person in this country! (NNU)
Nurses say: ‘We are not expendable. Pass Heroes Act’
Nurses across the country came together on Capitol Hill to hold a vigil for the 164 nurses who have died from the Coronavirus. Shoes were placed on the lawn for each nurse to honor them. Nurses also called on Congress to pass the Heroes Act. “We want it passed because of the economic assistance that’s so badly needed, for working families and . . . tribal governments. But for us, two things are absolutely critical. One, that they fully start the Defense Production Act to make sure we have enough equipment . . . in a steady supply, and that there’s a provision for a medical supplies coordinator. That person needs to give us transparency in where the equipment is, how it’s coming along, being produced, and where it’s delivered. The other, essential part would insure a mandate for OSHA. That they promulgate an emergency temporary standard that insures that all workers under this pandemic get the equipment they need, that they understand clearly how it is to be used, and that employers [are prevented] from locking it up and keeping it from us . . . We’re not expendable . . . We are dying along with other healthcare workers. There are things our government can do. We need everybody telling their legislators to get this thing through . . .” —National Nurses United President Jean Ross on CBSNews
Racial inequities in health care
“I think government regulation is one of the hallmarks of anti-discrimination advances throughout society. You need the government to say that certain things are allowed and certain things aren’t, that certain things are rights and other things are privileges. And in this country, we need to say really firmly that we need our government to say . . . that health care is a right, that everyone should have access to it, and that our government will invest in ensuring that that is a possibility . . [and] then, create incentives, financial and moral . . . to ensure that everybody has access to that right.” — Dr. Rhea Boyd (PBS)
An Economy of Care
“If we actually pull resources out of the police, out of police and prison budgets, and put those resources into places we need them: to healthcare, to people having access to housing, education, jobs, we are shifting the paradigm. And I believe that in this current historical moment, we have so much at stake. And, and when we hear the cry to defund the police and the sheriff and incarceration and probation and parole and the D.A.’s office, we’re actually talking about defunding the criminalization of human beings. We’re challenging this idea that we have to keep funding an economy of punishment. We need to be funding an economy of care. And so, we are not going to let up. We are going to be in the streets, but also plan. . . . this is the opportunity to fight for as much as we can. . . . this is the time that we transform the entire system, and it’s possible if we collectively push to change that entire system. And so we’re shouting ‘defund the police’ and on the other side of that is ‘healthcare for all.’” — Patrisse Cullors, co-founder, BLM, (Nurses United Medicare for All conference.)
