Happy New Year, all!
Read NFSP President Carole Most’s letter to nurses, and find out how to get involved. Check out the stories of the amazing activist nurses who joined the board of NFSP in 2017, and what they’ve been up to! And, for the most up to date news, “like” our Facebook page.
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Take a look at our September 2017 newsletter, edited by NFSP Vice President Rachel Prusak!
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Nurse Practitioner Tom Sincic, newly elected President of Health Care for All Oregon, June 2017
Rachel Prusak, NFSP Vice President, in Salem June 2017 revenue rally
Sen. Jeff Merkley at press conference in support of nurses, May 2017, Portland
Senator Merkley with Nurses for Single Payer, May 19, 2017
HCAO Board at statewide meeting June 10, 2017, including newly elected HCAO President Tom Sincic, NP,(center) . Other nurse board members include Mary Lou Hennrich (standing, left) and Lauri Hoagland of Ashland (not pictured)
Nurses for Single Payer at HCAO Rally, Salem, April 2017
This spring, nurses all over Oregon have stood up to fight against cutbacks to health care, and to support a single payer model of universal health care. We have testified; we have rallied; we have lobbied; we have reached out to other nurses and to our community. We are taking leadership roles in HCAO and in our nursing organizations. Besides single payer legislation, we have supported state bills which will increase access to health care: adequate state revenue, Cover All Kids, Reproductive Health Equity, reforms of CCOs, bills to control the costs of expensive medications and more!
On April 20, 2017, many of us went to Salem with HCAO in support of SB 1046, the state single payer bill. Two nurses, Mary Lou Hennrich and Lisa Miyamoto, provided superb testimony before the Senate Health Care Committee. Read their statements here and here.
On May 19, nurses joined Sen. Merkley at a press conference announcing his introduction of two bills recognizing and supporting the essential role of nurses in the health care system. Nurses at the press conference made passionate statements in support of access to health care, and NFSP were present with our signs and banners. Click here to read the press release, including inspiring statements from nurses Teri Mills and Maureen Andersen, click here to watch the KATU news report, or click here to watch a livestream of the rally itself on Sen. Merkley’s Facebook page.
L to R: Panelists Bob Gross (Portland Jobs with Justice); David Young (Nurses for Single Payer); Rachel Prusak (Nurses for Single Payer); and Hyung Nam (HCAO).
Nurses for Single Payer (NFSP) co-sponsored the film Now Is The Time: Healthcare for Everybody, at Portland’s Clinton Street Theatre. Following the film, panelists and the audience participated in a spirited discussion about single payer health care and how to make it a reality here in Oregon.
J.R. McLain
Rachel Prusak
Nurses for Single Payer is growing, and we elected Board members and officers this month.
Please congratulate our new officers: Carole Most, President and Rachel Prusak, Vice President. Continuing as officers are Kathy Birch, Secretary, and Tom Sincic, Treasurer. New Board member J.R. McLain joins David Young and Betsy Zucker.
We want to welcome the two new NFSP Board members, who bring fresh energy, excitement and dedication to our movement: Rachel Prusak, FNP, and J.R. McLain, RN. Continue reading
The best defense is a good offense.
Nurses’ struggle for universal, publicly funded health care takes on increased urgency now with the threats to health care access on the national stage, and budget woes here in Oregon. Many of us have taken action. We now have an opportunity to push even more strongly and vocally for single payer health care as the right solution to what ails the current health care system, while continuing to fight against cutbacks to current programs.
Nancy Sullivan and Betsy Zucker, NFSP Board Members, meeting with Earl Blumenauer’s staff and HCAO activists, Feb 22, 2017
NFSP Board Member Tom Sincic, FNP at the ONA Lobby Day, Salem, Feb. 14, 2017
Oregon
Budget Deficit: Oregon faces a very large budget deficit with the defeat of Measure 97. It is essential to raise additional revenue, in order to avoid cutting essential health care services for our most vulnerable citizens. Contact your state legislators and let them know that you support raising revenue.
Rand Study on health care financing and next steps to single payer: The long-awaited Rand Corporation study of Oregon health care financing has been released (summary here; full report here). It confirms single payer as a viable health care financing plan. State Sen. Michael Dembrow will be asking the legislature to establish a Task Force for implementation (see article in the Lund Report), and we will be mobilizing in support of this legislation.
Other Oregon legislative priorities: Click HERE for good summaries of the bills HCAO and NFSP will be following and supporting in this legislative session. These will be updated regularly, as bills move through the Legislature. We encourage you to use this information and stay in touch with your legislator.
National
Increased interest in National Health Insurance (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All)
Earl Blumenauer, Oregon’s U.S. Representative for the 3rd Congressional District, recently announced that he will be a co-sponsor for HR 676. This is big news: he is the first Oregon Congressperson to co-sponsor HR 676! Call and let him know that you support his stance. Portland 503-231-2300; Washington, DC 202-225-4811,
There is renewed interest in national health care. Check out the the new national Campaign for Guaranteed Healthcare, a coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676.
Now Is The Time is a new film, which proposes a timely replacement for Obamacare.
When former Oregon-resident filmmakers Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg began shooting Now is the Time- Healthcare for Everybody, they had no idea the U.S. healthcare system was about to be thrown into disarray by the new administration’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, potentially causing millions of Americans to lose their healthcare access. But the threat of impending major changes to the healthcare system makes their film even more timely.
Continue reading
NFSP participated in the Labor & Community rally and march, 
and then in the massive Women’s March, where we joined approximately 100,000 others! We handed out yellow “Nurses for Single Payer” buttons, and our friends from HCAO did a great job gathering signatures for the HCAO Statement of Support (for single payer health care). Between HCAO, Nurses for Single Payer, and members of the Jobs with Justice Health Care Committee, single payer was well-represented on this historic occasion.
Oregon nurses, including many wearing Nurses for Single Payer buttons, were in evidence at the Save Health Care Rally hosted by members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation in Portland on November 15, 2016. A surprising number of signs in support of single payer health care were in evidence in the gymnasium and outside in the overflow area. Continue reading
Nurses had a strong showing at the statewide meeting of Health Care for All – Oregon (HCAO) in Corvallis on November 12, 2016, our single payer advocacy coalition. We attended workshops, and networked with health care advocates from all over Oregon. Pictured are just some of the many nurse activists who attended!